Analysis

• Mortgages - safe as houses, or 'waiving' goodbye to repayment returns?

  27 July 2020

  Home loans have proved popular with Europe's insurers, to the tune of €237bn invested in 2019, but that was in the good times. As many underwriters holding them are forced to delay collecting repayments amid COVID-19, some are re-running stress tests on their portfolios, David Walker finds

  

• Comment: Global insurance CIOs well-positioned to weather COVID-19 storms

  23 July 2020

  Many insurers had already reduced portfolio risks in view of expensive valuations and anticipated credit cycle concerns, with the events of 2020 enabling accelerated decision making to capitalise on market dislocations, Etienne Comon writes on the back of Goldman Sachs Asset Management's annual insurance asset management survey.

  

• Comment: Where eagles dare

  21 July 2020

  On the back of five months of research on insurers' sustainable investment strategies, Vincent Huck reflects on the state of ESG integration at insurers, and why it's time for investors to 'dare'

  

• European insurers reported record equity holdings prior to COVID-19 market collapse

  14 July 2020

  While underwriters like to call themselves 'fixed-income investors', they have become significant players in the equity markets, and the COVID-19 turbulences might not be all bad news. David Walker reports

  

• Solvency II's VA mechanism too good a tool in COVID-19 times

  08 July 2020

  Often hailed as ineffective the Solvency II's volatility adjustment rules have served insurers well against the impact of COVID-19 on markets in the first half of 2020, but could it have served them too well? Stephanie Harris reports

  

• EU's CMU consultation puts equity capital charge under the spotlight again

  06 July 2020

  Insurance Europe again calls for review of equity charge reviving the debate over the Solvency II equity treatment and potentially setting a collision course with the European Insurance and Occupational Pensions Authority. Vincent Huck reports

  

• Did the Fed kill the bond market?

  02 July 2020

  Hopes were high at the end of March for investors to profit from the Fed's QE intervention and access a rejuvenated credit sector. The once-in-a-lifetime returns have, however, swiftly disappeared, and investors are back to staring at the ghost of bond market past. So what next? Sarfraz Thind reports

  

• Infrastructure market still on track post-COVID-19

  29 June 2020

  The financial crisis that unfolded on the back of the pandemic might have caused insurers to pause when it comes to allocation to infrastructure assets. But this is merely a bump in the road say asset managers, and insurers' investments in core infrastructure investments will come back stronger than ever.

  

• Insurers still live under the shadow of low rates, Generali's Martorana warns

  24 June 2020

  Francesco Martorana, chief executive of Generali Insurance Asset Management warns that while crises come and go, low interest rates remain the main threat for the sector. Interview by Vincent Huck

  

• IAR survey: Back to the future of interest rates

  22 June 2020

  For years insurers have been battling low interest rates. First they got used to the idea of 'low', then they got their minds around the concept of 'lower for longer', and more recently some have been saying that we are now in a 'low forever' scenario. Vincent Huck reports the findings of Insurance Asset Risk's survey.