Archive

• 'A new breed of strategically positioned CIOs is emerging'

  18 August 2017

  Former CRO at Police Mutual, non-executive director and independent risk management advisor Vicky Kubitscheck discusses the evolving role of the investment function and the CIO against a changing regulatory and governance landscape.

• M&A: tipping the scales

  09 August 2017

  With a squeeze on fees and increased competition, the asset management world is realising the need for scale. Insurers have already started on the M&A trail, but there appears to be much more on the way. Sarfraz Thind reports

• End of the road for ground rents?

  03 August 2017

  Ground rents were talked up as a great diversifier for insurers, with stable and very long term cashflows, but the UK government's consultation paper and media scrutiny in the past week may be a death knell for the asset class. Asa Gibson reports

• Insurers blame asset managers for insufficient look-through

  21 July 2017

  European insurers pass the buck onto asset managers for lack of reporting data, but Eiopa pursues a hard line with underwriters facing difficulty getting hands on investment data. David Walker reports

• Private debt blues

  19 July 2017

  Private debt seems the perfect fit for insurance investors with its long-term horizon, better-than-average returns and graspable risk for those used to dealing with fixed income. Yet the regulatory stance on the asset has not been overly clear so far. Sarfraz Thind reports

• 'Bring it on': California commissioner bullish on fossil fuel divestment

  14 July 2017

  Commissioner Dave Jones was threatened with legal action from 12 Republican attorney generals who oppose his fossil fuel investments disclosure initiative. The threats appear to have spurred Jones on, however. Callum Tanner reports

• SimCorp on the investment technology drive

  12 July 2017

  As insurers push further into the asset management space, investment technology will become ever more critical to business performance. Klaus Holse, CEO of SimCorp, talks to Sarfraz Thind about how the firm is helping insurers grow their investment operations.

• MA optimisation: the experience at LV=

  07 July 2017

  The matching adjustment (MA) is a vital element of the Solvency II package to annuity underwriters, but making the most of it is challenging. In this article, James Sharpe, developer of optimisation tool OptiMA, and Ed Rayson of insurer LV=, describe how MA benefits have been improved in practice

• Why Aegon, Allianz, Aviva and NN are well prepared for rising rates

  30 June 2017

  Many loans and mortgages offer resilience to interest rate volatility, and with talk of rising rates becoming more frequent – whether through optimism or anticipation – IAR unmasks the largest life insurers' allocations to the lesser-used asset classes. David Walker Reports

• Solvency II filings reveal extent of life insurers' illiquid investments

  28 June 2017

  Insurance Risk Data, the data service offered by the publishers of IAR, examined the QRTs of Europe's largest life companies that together run €1trn of investments and found they had allocated €375.7bn to five illiquid asset classes. David Walker reports