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Future-proof regulatory change for European insurers

Helping (re)insurers navigate the Solvency II review, IRRD and DORA without losing focus on the policyholder.

For European (re)insurers, 2026 is the runway year before three regulatory programmes land at once. The Solvency II review reached the statute book this winter. The Insurance Recovery and Resolution Directive (IRRD) follows the same timeline, DORA is now fully applicable to insurance and reinsurance undertakings, ad the AI Act’s high-risk regime touches life and health pricing, claims-decisioning and fraud screening from August 2026. CSRD second-wave reports are landing for the largest insurers, and FIDA is on the horizon.

The 2026 insurance landscape: a runway year before three programmes land

For European (re)insurers, 2026 is the runway year before three regulatory programmes land at once. The Solvency II review reached the statute book this winter. Commission Delegated Regulation 2026/269 was published in February, EIOPA’s revised guidelines on the supervisory review process and standard-formula market and counterparty risk landed alongside, and Member States must transpose the Directive amendments by end-January 2027. Risk margin calculation, long-term guarantee measures, equity and spread risk, and proportionality are all moving at once.

The Insurance Recovery and Resolution Directive (IRRD) follows the same timeline, asking insurers to design pre-emptive recovery plans, support resolvability assessments and contribute to a new pre-financed insurance resolution fund. DORA is now fully applicable to insurance and reinsurance undertakings, with EIOPA pushing third-party ICT register quality and incident classification to the top of supervisory dialogues.

The AI Act’s high-risk regime touches life and health pricing, claims-decisioning and fraud screening from August 2026. CSRD second-wave reports are landing for the largest insurers, and FIDA is on the horizon. The build-pressure on actuarial, risk and compliance teams has rarely been higher.

How ACE + Company helps

Two distinct offerings. ACE consulting, on the ground, in focused teams. And ACE Regulatory AI, our regulatory intelligence platform.

ACE consulting

A boutique change management practice with niche regulatory expertise in the European financial sector. Strategic and tactical services on the change programmes that have to land.

  • Regulatory change is the only thing we do. Structuring, orchestrating and implementing new regulations is the practice, not a sideline. Niche regulatory expertise runs through every engagement.
  • Change management as a discipline. A proven track record in change management in complex environments. We work in behaviour, governance, controls and stakeholder alignment, not just gap analysis.
  • Lean teams that integrate with yours. A focused team pairs with your legal, compliance, operations and product owners, transferring capability as we go.
  • Sustainable capabilities, lasting impact. Every engagement is engineered for the day after we leave. Documentation, controls, MI, training and ownership are designed in from day one, so the change holds when supervisors come back

Working alongside European (re)insurers on the regulatory change agenda set by Solvency II, IRRD, DORA, IDD, CSRD and the wider EIOPA pipeline.

ACE Regulatory AI: our regulatory intelligence platform

RegAI reads regulatory texts, structures binding obligations, and maps them to your control framework, so you know where you stand on the regulations you onboard.

  • Nexus. A cross-regulation view, organised by operational domain and topic family rather than by document. The groups you actually own (DORA, governance, technical provisions, ICT risk, conduct, third-party risk and so on) pulled together across the regulations onboarded for your firm, rather than read in document silos.
  • Posture. Defensible coverage by regulation and by domain, computed continuously from real artifact-to-requirement evidence. Not a self-assessed RAG. Numbers your board and your supervisor can both understand.
  • Pulse. Regulatory change monitoring that tells you what it means for you. When EIOPA or DNB publishes a new technical standard or guideline, Pulse identifies which of your obligations are affected and shows the impact on your live posture.
  • Workbench. Close gaps in the same place you find them. Upload a new policy or amend an existing artifact, preview the projected posture change before approving, and leave a complete audit trail.
  • Mathilda. Your AI compliance assistant. Ask “How well are we covered on DORA Article 17?” in plain English and get a board-ready answer in seconds, with article references and suggested follow-ups.

RegAI’s library spans core EU financial regulations including DORA, GDPR, MiFID II, NIS2 and others, with the architecture to add further regulations and jurisdictions over time.

What you can plan around

  • A defensible Solvency II review, IRRD and DORA position you can present to EIOPA, DNB or your board, backed by auditable evidence rather than self-assessed RAG.
  • A coordinated response across the Solvency II review, IRRD, DORA and CSRD that removes duplicated effort between siloed programmes.
  • Lower cost of regulatory change. Your most experienced actuarial, risk and compliance professionals focus on judgement, not on summarising the same regulation a fifth time.
  • A control environment that holds after we leave, embedded in your operating model from day one.
  • A live view of how your compliance position evolves as the Solvency II review and IRRD bed in.

Future-proof your 2026 insurance agenda

Whether you are scoping the Solvency II review, building IRRD recovery plans, or hardening DORA before EIOPA examination, we would like to talk.

Talk to us More about RegAI