Insurance
Potential back-door route to Solvency II equivalence for US insurers
EC outlines potential route for US insurance regulatory regime being granted equivalent status to Solvency II
UK FSA bans director amid insurance fraud crackdown
Andrew Jeffery banned and fined over insurance fraud failings
Solvency II poses bigger danger to economic stability than bank refinancing
Refinancing risk dwarfed by Solvency II’s impact on insurer appetite for corporate debt
E&P energy company premiums likely to rise
Energy exploration and production (E&P) companies face increased cost risks as insurance premiums could rise, following BP’s Gulf of Mexico oil spill, which forced reinsurance firms, such as Germany’s Munich Re, to shell out hefty payments
Scor looks to Solvency II
Philippe Trainar, chief risk officer at Scor, talks to Alexander Campbell
Italy’s new structured products landscape
The collapse of Lehman Brothers, a bank that had produced massive amounts of index-linked products for the Italian insurance sector, left retail investors weary of structured investments and led to a big regulatory shake-up. What role can structured…
Taking on variable risk
The variable annuity business in Asia continues to attract banks and insurance companies. The potential market is of a staggering size which would far surpass the volumes in the US or Japan, the two biggest users of the products. Harry Thompson…
Variable annuities face more hedging challenges in Asia
Variable returns
Profile: Swiss Re's Raj Singh
Predicitng the unthinkable
Firms scrimp on insurance despite rise in claims
Survey finds European firms aligning insurance packages with their risk profiles
Loss leaders
Operational risk is potentially the biggest risk faced by insurers – and also one of the most difficult to model. However, as a number of loss data aggregation initiatives globally either emerge or mature, insurers are better placed to quantify their op…
Learning to Love Basel II
Introducing a major insurance element to operational risk management processes is a passion for National Australia Bank’s Ross Love.
Irish regulator warns of post-crisis surpervisory scepticism
The financial regulator, Matthew Elderfield, has warned Irish insurers that he will be more interventionist, rather than wait for a market failure to manifest itself and then cautiously weigh up the costs and benefits of a response.
US insurers taking up GRC in budget drive, says expert
Insurance firms are using GRC to cope with tight budgets and heavy compliance burdens
Sound scenarios
Mariano Selvaggi describes the issues the Operational Risk Consortium took into account when preparing its report on the use of scenario analysis of operational risk in insurance, and how a sound scenarios framework can benefit firms
Asian insurers hedge away solvency fears
Asian insurance companies have sat up and paid attention to their solvency ratios during the past two years like never before. This has led to unprecedented levels of derivatives take-up. But will this conversion to derivatives last? Harry Thompson…
Inverted swap spreads change insurer’s and pension fund’s hedging approach
Inverted swap spreads have defied earlier predictions that they were a short-term aberration to still be a feature 18 months after their first appearance. Is this set to continue and, if so, does it pose an opportunity for pension schemes and insurers?…
Locked out of longevity
Despite regulatory scrutiny of life settlement products and concerns over the complexity of assessing longevity risk, the institutional structured product market in the asset class is growing exponentially. But will these products ever be suitable for…