I probably do not need to tell anyone in this room that we are indeed living in unusual times. Policymakers around the world have been grappling for the past six years with an economic crisis, which has repeatedly mutated, and it is still not clear what direction the crisis is going to take next.
That means that a bail‐in could affect policyholders sooner. On the other hand, introducing loss‐absorbing capacity could drastically change the business models of Dutch insurers. This could in turn lead to higher costs for policyholders. The second difference is the absence of a guarantee scheme.