Archive

• Do rising rates signal a volte-face by reinsurers on illiquid assets?

  12 September 2022

  With RVS in Monte Carlo well underway, Abbie Wood spoke to industry experts to learn how rising interest rates could push reinsurers away from the illiquid assets from which they once sought yield... but not all the experts agree.

• Sustainable investing: how to implement what still needs to be defined?

  02 September 2020

  Lack of data and commonly agreed definitions are the main challenges for insurers in implementing their sustainable investment policies, chief investments officers tell Vincent Huck.

• Focusing on governance would drive greater sustainable outcomes and greater returns

  26 August 2020

  While ESG has become part of the investment lingo, its three pillars - E, S and G - do not carry the same weight depending on whether one speaks to the investment professional, the marketing people or the HR department. Vincent Huck reports

• EM debt - worth a look in the latter stages of the credit cycle?

  22 August 2019

  A market downturn is deemed to have more impact on emerging markets (EM) than on developed economies. It poses the question whether EM debt is a smart investment at this stage of the credit cycle. Ian Coulman, chief investment officer at Pool Re, speaks with Vincent Huck on the topic.

• Regulation redefines relations between insurers and asset managers

  27 September 2018

  In the second part of Insurance Asset Risk's insurer-asset manager survey we examine how Solvency II has shifted the dynamic for insurance asset managers. Insurers are not always getting the tailor-made solutions, research and expertise they ask for. By Sarfraz Thind

• Insurers and asset managers: a relationship in turmoil

  13 September 2018

  The relationship between insurers and their asset manager is evolving, shifted by macroeconomic changes, regulations, fee pressures and new asset dynamics. Insurers say they want more from their asset managers. But more of what precisely? And how are managers responding? IAR asks the industry. By Sarfraz Thind

• The risks and rewards of leveraged finance: senior secured loans

  15 December 2017

  With European insurers showing increasing interest in allocating to senior secured loans – a more popular investment for US counterparts – David Turner explores how and why insurers either side of the Atlantic are approaching the asset class.

• The slippery skill of liquidity management

  01 December 2017

  Liquidity management is an ever-growing focus for insurers since the financial crisis. But how well do insurers understand it? Sarfraz Thind reports

• The calm before the storm: 'Investors should be worried'

  06 September 2017

  Some investors and analysts have been surprised by the calmness of financial markets at a time of political and economic uncertainty. Sarfraz Thind talks to seven senior investment professionals working with insurance assets about their prognosis for the future.

• Solvency II filings reveal extent of life insurers' illiquid investments

  28 June 2017

  Insurance Risk Data, the data service offered by the publishers of IAR, examined the QRTs of Europe's largest life companies that together run €1trn of investments and found they had allocated €375.7bn to five illiquid asset classes. David Walker reports