2021 Insurance stress test factsheet

The 2021 stress test exercise focuses on a prolonged COVID-19 scenario in a “lower for longer” interest rate environment and evaluates its impacts on the capital and liquidity position of the entities in scope.

The 2021 stress test exercise aims to assess the resilience of the participants to the adverse scenario(s) by a capital and liquidity perspective in order to provide supervisors with information on whether these insurers are able to withstand severe but plausible shocks. 

While not being a pass/fail exercise, the 2021 exercise has mainly a microprudential approach. It allows EIOPA to make recommendations to the industry and enables supervisors to ask insurance undertakings to take remedial actions, when needed, in order to improve their resilience.