Operational losses for the capital charge of health insurers: lessons from Spain

Abstract

The new legislation in the insurance sector within the European Union, Solvency II, which represents an important milestone for the management and financial analysis of operational risk, will have a positive impact on their knowledge and control. This research explores the statistical analysis of the operational risks of health insurance companies in Spain from an external database of insured losses, which is a qualitative relevant aspect that will help to understand its behaviour for the future combination of data and the later selection of models and subsequent quantification of solvency capital. Results show that the database is consistent with the overall performance of operational risks, which ultimately will facilitate the acceptance and control of operational risks within insurers.