Analysis

• Talanx's CIO Thomas Mann focuses on idiosyncratic risk

  08 January 2016

  Diversification is key to defending your company against the unknowns like the ones that Mann faced during the 2008 crisis. That experience was crucial. "You learn how to protect your assets," he tells Sarfraz Thind

• Lower-carbon companies could command a premium after Paris deal

  23 December 2015

  Mike Fox gauges the impact of the climate agreement on investment decisions

• Generali embarks on more active investment policy

  21 December 2015

  Generali has been seeking to expand its investment horizons in a bid to combat the impact of low European interest rates. But the pace of change is slow and Solvency II's stringent capital rules are partly to blame, as the company's EMEA CIO, Andreas Hoffmann, explains to Sarfraz Thind

• Asset management in the Solvency II transition

  11 December 2015

  Preparing for Solvency II is one thing, but living with it will involve further refinements in how insurers approach asset management, as participants in part one this InsuranceERM/Standard Life Investments roundtable attest

• Insurers' asset management arms target other insurers' assets

  01 December 2015

  Such are the yield and regulatory pressures, insurers are not necessarily deterred by asset managers' links to competing insurers. In fact, shared experience of the insurance business is a plus. And insurers' asset managers are looking further afield for new clients. David Turner reports

• Outsourced or in-house: the great asset management debate

  26 November 2015

  In part 2 of this InsuranceERM/bfinance roundtable, participants discuss their approaches to managing assets in-house and using external asset managers

• Designing asset strategies for the new business environment

  20 November 2015

  Many insurers have been reassessing their investment portfolios in light of low rates and Solvency II. In the first part of this InsuranceERM/bfinance roundtable, participants discuss concerns about diversification and liquidity, and whether they can be opportunistic enough in today's fast-moving markets

• If European securitisation grows, it's likely to be despite EC regulation

  17 November 2015

  Regulation and stasis comes ahead of dynamism and free movement of capital in draft rules from Brussels on securitisation, and there will be a big increase in compliance costs. David Shearer explains

• Resolving insurers' current equity dilemma

  11 November 2015

  The search for yield among insurers would suggest some shift to riskier assets such as equities, were it not for impending Solvency II capital charges inhibiting this. But there's still time to take advantage of the equity grandfathering provision, explains Elodie Laugel

• Insurers need change in mindset to embrace ETFs fully

  29 October 2015

  The attraction of exchange-traded funds to insurance investors is increasing but further growth may be slowed by regulatory worries and resistance from proponents of an active approach to portfolio management. Sarfraz Thind reports