Mark Friend, chief operating officer at Premier Asset Management, expects Solvency II to create a  glut of look-through data requests from  insurance clients, beginning later this year. And he also believes Solvency II is going to change the way in which insurers choose their asset managers.

"An asset manager's willingness and ability to provide accurate and timely look-through data will become a key factor in their decision-making process," he argues. "Those asset managers who fail to grasp this particular nettle are going to make themselves unattractive to insurers."

His comments came as Premier announced it had appointed Silverfinch to handle an expected sharp rise in look-through data requests from its insurance clients preparing to comply with the new Solvency II regulations. Premier noted that insurers will begin requesting look-through data from asset managers by end of this quarter.

Silverfinch is a secure fund data utility that has the ability to handle a large number of data requests and provide its insurance clients with information in a standard format that will help them to deal with the new regulations. Friend said, "Silverfinch struck us as the most simple and elegant solution."

Premier had £3.4bn assets under management at 31 January.