European insurance watchdog EIOPA has said Bermuda’s regulatory regime for big insurers mostly complies with its own strict Solvency II rules.“EIOPA’s advice is that Bermuda meets the criteria set out in EIOPA’s methodology for equivalent assessments under Solvency II,” EIOPA said yesterday in a submission to the European Commission.Regulator the Bermuda Monetary Authority has been striving to achieve “third-country equivalency” with the new rules, which will require insurers to hold more capital and adopt higher standards of corporate governance.BMA CEO Jeremy Cox welcomed the news.“EIOPA’s final advice to the EU Commission reiterates that Bermuda’s regulatory framework for the commercial sector is aligned with Solvency II,” Mr Cox told The Royal Gazette.“This is another positive step in the equivalence process for Bermuda, and for participants in our re/insurance market. The Authority remains on track to consult with the market on outstanding framework matters, and also to complete our remaining developments by the end of 2012.”If Bermuda’s regime had failed to win EIOPA’s approval, European insurers would have been unable to count the full value of Bermudian reinsurance contracts towards their capital, potentially deterring them from doing business on the Island.Bermuda is home to reinsurers who account for 40 percent of the European property catastrophe reinsurance market, EIOPA said.EIOPA also said Switzerland and Japan’s regulatory regimes mostly complied with Solvency II, a set of rules aimed at bolstering European insurers’ capital expected to come into force in 2014.