1. The mortality risk stress referred to in Article 77b(1)(f) of Directive 2009/138/EC shall be the more adverse of the following two scenarios in terms of its impact on basic own funds:

(a) an instantaneous permanent increase of 15 % in the mortality rates used for the calculation of the best estimate;

(b) an instantaneous increase of 0.15 percentage points in the mortality rates (expressed as percentages) which are used in the calculation of technical provisions to reflect the mortality experience in the following 12 months.

2. For the purpose of paragraph 1 the increase in mortality rates shall only apply to those insurance policies for which the increase in mortality rates leads to an increase in technical provisions taking into account all of the following:

(a) multiple insurance policies in respect of the same insured person may be treated as if they were one insurance policy;

(b) where the calculation of technical provisions is based on groups of policies as referred to in Article 35, the identification of the policies for which technical provisions increase under an increase of mortality rates may also be based on those groups of policies instead of single policies, provided that it yields a result which is not materially different.