The creation of a pan-European insurance supervisor has been proposed by the European Commission as it moves to centralise financial regulation in the wake of the global financial crisis.

Under the plan, a new European Systemic Risk Board will monitor and assess risks to the stability of the European Union’s financial system overall and give member states early warnings.

A new Insurance and Occupational Pensions Authority would be part of a network of national regulators working together with new Europe-wide supervisors, along with a new European Banking Authority and a European Securities and Markets Authority.

The proposals have met with opposition in Britain, where insurers fear excessive prudential capital requirements and a dominating influence of bankers.

The Association of British Insurers (ABI) says it – in common with the whole of the European insurance industry – has serious reservations about the over-zealous interpretation of Solvency II regulatory requirements proposed by regulators in the Committee of European Insurance Occupational Pensions Committee, from which the new insurance authority would emerge.

“We will therefore be looking carefully at the commission’s proposals on the supervisory framework to ensure that there are robust checks and balances on the powers to be devolved to regulators,” the ABI said in a statement.

“We are also concerned that the macro-prudential body, the European Systemic Risk Board, is dominated by bankers and does not have enough insurance expertise.”