Rekindled affection: transitional measures spur equity rethink

Big capital charges had led to expectations that firms’ equity holdings would only shrink as European regulation approaches. Callum Tanner finds out that might not necessarily be the case

Talking investors through his company’s results in February, Antoine Lissowski, chief financial officer at CNP Assurances in Paris, said the firm increased its holdings of equity by €2 billion ($2.1 billion) in 2014, and plans to buy another €3 billion this year.

That seems reasonable, with European equity markets reaching all-time highs, boosted by the launch of quantitative easing. And yet, for the region’s insurers, it feels somewhat counterintuitive because many in the industry assumed