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At the helm of Europe's giant general account
26 February 2019Pascal Christory, chief investment officer at Axa Group, describes the difficult balance between centralisation and flexibility in an international group's investment strategy. Interview by David Walker
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Stormy days ahead for insurers as LGIM warns of global slowdown and credit default risks
19 February 2019From slower growth in the US and China, to the huge rollback of central bank purchasing, the global investment environment is in a perilous state that leaves insurers in need of knowing their weakest links, according to Legal & General Investment Managers. Adam Leach reports on the outlook for 2019 of its CIO and deputy CIO
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Q&A with Mohamed El Erian, chief economic advisor at Allianz
09 November 2018What to make of the current insurance investment markets? How should insurers approach the issue of market liquidity? What kind of volatility might one expect in the next twelve months? IAR's US editor Sarfraz Thind asks Mohamed El-Erian, chief economic adviser at Allianz.
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"Actuaries and asset managers have cultural differences like Chinese and Europeans"- Schroders' Perisse
20 July 2018Ghislain Périssé joined Schroders as head of insurance strategy in the insurance asset management team in May of this year. Previously at Axa Investment Management, Périssé is based out of Paris, but on a visit to London he sat down with Vincent Huck to discuss the cultural rift between actuaries and asset managers. In this first of a two-part article, he also discusses his move, the differences between in-house and third-party insurance asset managers, and how countries' cultures have influenced Solvency II implementation.
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Blackstone targets insurance assets
03 July 2018The insurance industry has no shortage of asset managers jostling to take on assets. So why would someone start from scratch to get into the game? Despite competition, Blackstone believes the opportunities in insurance asset management remain vast. Chris Blunt, head of the group's insurance solutions, explains the company's motivation and strategy. By Sarfraz Thind
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Foresters Friendly ready to dump sterling assets to tackle Brexit
09 May 2018Corrado Pistarino, chief investment officer at Foresters Friendly, outlines his firm's risk management strategy if things deteriorate with Brexit and what asset managers need to do in order to win mandates from insurance clients. By Cintia Cheong
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Aberdeen Standard Investments' CIO's interesting 12 months
26 April 2018Rod Paris, CIO at Aberdeen Standard Investments (ASI), talks about the company's transformational twelve months following the merger and that cancelled Scottish Widows mandate, likely to cost the company some 20% of its assets. By Sarfraz Thind
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Zurich's Johanna Köb: investors can make a return while doing good
26 March 2018Johanna Köb, head of responsible investment at Zurich, talks to Cintia Cheong on the importance of adequate pricing of greenhouse gases and how investors can make a profit while doing good to the society and environment.
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'Bring it on': California commissioner bullish on fossil fuel divestment
14 July 2017Commissioner 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
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SimCorp on the investment technology drive
12 July 2017As 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.