EU insurance stress tests reveal industry vulnerability to ‘Japanification’

Firms are vulnerable to a prolonged low interest rate environment and asset shocks, stress tests show

One in four European insurers would fall below regulatory capital minimums in a Japanese-like prolonged low interest rate scenario, according to the results of an industry-wide series of stress tests. Gabriel Bernardino, chair of the European Insurance and Occupational Pensions Authority (Eiopa), commented that national supervisors would have to move firms away from "unsustainable business models" as a consequence.

Run by Eiopa between April and July, the stress tests challenged the resilience