Consummations: Naicom & Insurance Industry Recapitalisation

"Law or no law, nothing says I cannot forbid a company from doing a business which he doesn't have the finances for. We have been doing it and will continue to do it. Law or no law, policy or no policy, it is an inherent duty of a regulator to do that."

• Mohammed Kari, Commissioner of Insurance and CEO, National Insurance Commission (NAICOM)¹

"There are many ways to skin a cat" - Popular proverb

Introduction

The context for the above statement by Nigeria's insurance regulator was subsequent to the litigation instituted by aggrieved shareholders of some insurance companies to stop NAICOM's implementation of its Tier-Based Minimum Solvency Capital (TBMSC) policy directive.² Announced in August 2018, TBMSC's Transitional Guidelines embodied the implementation strategy for regulatory driven recapitalisation of the insurance industry.³ The TBMSC Circular defined TBMSC as "A regulatory model designed for the application of proportionate solvency capital that