Analysis

  • Sunny side up at Pacific Life

    07 November 2019

    Tod Nasser is in charge of Pacific Life’s $53bn fixed income portfolio. While the rest of the market appears bedevilled by change and uncertainty, he is positive for now. Indeed, looking at the liquidity situation, buoyant corporate earnings and the health of the US consumer, it certainly is not as risky a world as it was before the financial crisis. Sarfraz Thind reports

  • Brexit blows hot and cold for insurers' outsourcing relationships

    05 November 2019

    In the face of growing uncertainties around the date and terms of Brexit, underwriters with UK operations are leaning ever more heavily on their chosen asset managers for help, advice and expertise. David Walker reports

  • What assets do CIOs like that CROs don’t?

    31 October 2019

    A panel of CROs and CIOs at Insurance Asset Risk Americas conference reveals the investment decisions that prove most challenging to the relationship between risk and investment teams. Vincent Huck reports

  • To outsource the CIO, or not?

    29 October 2019

    While outsourced CIOs have been predominantly used in the pension space up until now, small US insurers are increasingly seeing the benefits of such a move. But insurers' needs differ widely from those of pension funds, and service providers will need to prove their worth to win mandates. Sarfraz Thind reports

  • Q&A: the love affair between US insurers and structured products

    24 October 2019

    Michelle Russell-Dowe, head of securitised credit at Schroders, discusses the benefits of structured products for insurers’ investments and warns of growing risk in the market. Interview by Sarfraz Thind

  • Amendments to Solvency II to move the dial on insurers’ equity holdings?

    22 October 2019

    European insurers’ equity holdings remained stable between 2017 and 2018 according to research by Insurance Risk Data, but could the recent amendments to Solvency II rules increase their appetite for the asset class? Vincent Huck reports

  • Sustainability and Solvency II: an imprudent regime

    17 October 2019

    Aviva Investors' Steve Waygood and Ben Carr, discuss integrating sustainability risk to Solvency II capital requirements, and why in some respect the prudential regulation is ‘imprudent’. Interview by Vincent Huck

  • MetLife’s sustainability man

    15 October 2019

    MetLife made Tim Ring its first head of sustainability late last year. There is no doubt he has a task on his hands, particularly when shareholders begin to divest because of ESG-related concerns. He tells Sarfraz Thind about creating a path to better ESG.

  • Sustainability and Solvency II: Is the frog dead yet?

    10 October 2019

    If the planet is a frog in a saucepan heated by the market, at the moment we are only taking the temperature and not reducing the heat, according to Steve Waygood, chief responsible investment officer, and Ben Carr, analytics and capital modelling director, at Aviva Investors. Interview by Vincent Huck

  • IAR Americas: CIOs’ views on outsourcing and risk management

    08 October 2019

    As part of a panel discussion at Insurance Asset Risk Americas 2019, four CIOs of insurance companies shared their views on outsourcing and how they see their roles evolving. By Vincent Huck