Analysis

  • Times when investment yield boosted fortunes are gone

    07 December 2020

    S&P Global Ratings warned non-life firms to get their underwriting in order, David Walker reports

  • CIO Interview: Macroeconomics is doomed, but investment opportunities still abound

    02 December 2020

    Mapfre's group chief investment officer José Luis Jiménez reflects on the current economic crisis and points out pockets of opportunity for his team to explore. Interview by Vincent Huck

  • Climate lawyer urges CIOs to pressure sovereigns on climate

    30 November 2020

    Australian government faces spotlight - and the dock - over poor bond disclosure. David Barnden, the lawyer who is taking the class action suit to the court, talks to David Walker about the case, and why institutional investors might want to join retail ones in litigating

  • Use of stress tests: careful not to address the fire that just happened

    25 November 2020

    Ash Belur, a director at Willis Towers Watson's insurance investment team, discusses insurers' usage of stress tests in their investment portfolios and how 2020 might have thrown many of the scenario assumptions out of the window. Interview by Vincent Huck

  • Comment : ESG investing in credit without compromise

    23 November 2020

    Andrew Epsom, insurance client solutions director at Royal London Asset Management, considers the continuing trend towards ESG investing in credit, but highlights that in many cases the approaches being adopted may not result in either the environmental or financial outcomes that insurers are seeking.

  • US Election result: Georgia on investors' mind

    18 November 2020

    The great US election of 2020 is done and it has changed little for insurance investors. Biden's win with a slim majority in Congress, and the likelihood of a gridlock means any major reforms are improbable. Unless Georgia delivers the Senate to the Democrats. Sarfraz Thind reports

  • To invest in offices or not invest in offices, that is the question

    16 November 2020

    With central office rents down, and the very future of work spaces in jeopardy, Vincent Huck looks at what is in the balance for European insurers' €87bn of investments in the asset class

  • Asset managers turn from outsourcing partners to owners of Bermuda re/insurers

    11 November 2020

    Research by Insurance Risk Data analyses the trend of part ownership of Bermudian re/insurers by asset managers, looking in particular at the investments of Wellington, Blackstone and Carlyle. David Walker reports

  • In conversation: Guernsey's regulator on green capital charges

    09 November 2020

    The director of banking and insurance, Jeremy Quick, and the assistant director, Matthew Tanner, at Guernsey Financial Services Commission talk to Vincent Huck about their recent proposal to introduce a 'green discount' for fixed income investments in the jurisdiction's solvency rules.

  • Cash a 'sweat-able asset' in need of exercise

    04 November 2020

    Cash once used to be king, but the cost of holding it has become prohibitive for insurers, who are also weary of the prospect of losing money in their safe harbour asset class: government bonds. Has the time to make their money "sweat" come? David Walker asks