Bank of England approves capital models for 19 UK insurers

LONDON, Dec 5 (Reuters) - Britain's top two insurers Aviva and Prudential along with the Lloyd's of Londoninsurance market were among the 19 firms whose capitalcalculation models the Bank of England approved on Saturday.

Approval means the named insurers can use in-house internalmodels to determine how much capital they must hold to safeguardpolicyholder commitments under new European Union Solvency IIcapital rules that come into force next month.

Without endorsement, firms must use a standard calculationmethod of their solvency set out by regulators, which typicallyleads to higher capital requirements.

"Going forward we will monitor insurers' models carefully inorder to ensure they continue to deliver an appropriate level ofcapital," Andrew Bailey, chief executive of the Bank ofEngland's Prudential Regulation Authority, said in a statement.

(Reporting by Carolyn Cohn and Huw Jones; Editing by KeithWeir)