The Financial Services Agency said Friday it will toughen standards for calculating the solvency margin ratio of insurance companies, a key indicator of their ability to pay claims to policyholders.
Tougher standards will include stricter assessment of risks involved in financial products, the FSA said.
Under the planned standards, the financial industry watchdog estimates that major life insurance companies' solvency margin ratios could drop some 50 percent from their current levels, and those at nonlife insurers about 30 percent.
New standards are expected to take effect, starting with book-closings, for fiscal 2011 through March 31, 2012.
In February 2008, the FSA announced an outline of new calculation standards and collected opinions from the public. But Yamato Life Insurance Co.'s collapse in October the same year and the global financial crisis, which started last fall, prompted the agency to further review the standards.