Analysis

• Think outside the box with private credit

  07 November 2016

  The time has come for insurance companies to move from window-shoppers to genuine private credit investors and grab some rare yield pick-up, say AB's Arnaud Mounier and Roger Cozzi

  

• Unsticking the liquidity jam

  02 November 2016

  Levels of fixed income issuance are at the highest level in nearly a decade yet concerns over bond liquidity have never been greater. The issue is squeezing flexibility in the secondary markets and forcing a deep review of the investment process. Sarfraz Thind reports.

  

• Low yields and the Darwinian battle facing life insurers

  31 October 2016

  The life sector must adapt to survive under Solvency II with low investment yields, says the former chief investment officer of Alliance Bernstein, Erik Vynckier. He talks to David Walker

  

• Negative equity threatens lifetime mortgage assets

  26 October 2016

  The potential for falling house prices after Brexit threatens the stability of lifetime mortgage returns. Firms are modelling worst case scenarios and testing the limits of an otherwise attractive asset. Callum Tanner reports.

  

• The data crunch

  19 October 2016

  Solvency II and asset diversification strategies have added a mountain of data to the insurance investment process, prompting insurers to look at new initiatives to tackle the issue. Sarfraz Thind reports.

  

• Challenging the definition of risk

  12 October 2016

  In light of increasingly complex and broad data crunching systems used by insurers to model investment risks, Invesco's Stephen Anness and Andrew Hall discuss the value of such models against investment fundamentals.

  

• Mortgaging the future

  10 October 2016

  Insurers are realising gains on fixed-income assets faster than ever before. It is a risky strategy, with little regard for future profitability. Sarfraz Thind reports.

  

• The high yields and low defaults of taxable muni bonds

  05 October 2016

  With a long record of above average returns and strong credit quality, the US's little-known taxable municipal bond market offers non-US insurers a safe route to yield, says Eaton Vance's Michael Sullivan.

  

• Why bond market liquidity is back on the worry list

  28 September 2016

  JP Morgan Asset Management's Prashant Sharma and Bryan Wallace on why insurance investors must accept structurally lower liquidity in bond markets, and how they can navigate the new asset landscape.

  

• Getting the measure of credit downgrade risk

  21 September 2016

  Investors are questioning the impact of credit downgrades on insurers' Solvency II balance sheets. Hugo Coelho investigates how firms are gauging this risk and why they resist putting a figure on it.