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EU regulations have proven their worth in 2020—2021 will be about fine tuning
30 December 2020Elizabeth Gillam, head of EU government affairs & public policy at Invesco, talks about the EU's regulatory pipeline for the coming year, and the key pieces of legislation that may affect insurers' investments. Interview by Vincent Huck
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Germany's ZZR remains a conundrum for insurers
29 December 2020Calculating pay-ins in Germany's Zinszusatzreserve (ZZR) was overhauled in 2018 to reduce pressure on German insurers to build the reserve too quickly by selling valuable investments just to satisfy mandatory contributions. Has the reform been just a 'one-year wonder'? David Walker investigates
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Brexit or low interest rates: Chesnara knows the answer
28 December 2020The year has been volatile and ugly. And just when it is shaping towards an end, another unwelcome friend has re-entered the fray: Brexit. However, UK insurer Chesnara's CEO says Brexit is not the worst thing to be worried about right now.
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IAR Survey: Active versus passive, where do insurers stand?
23 December 2020As passive strategies have risen in popularity over the years, active managers have argued that their value would be apparent in times of crisis - if COVID-19 was the perfect scenario, have they delivered? And where do insurers and their "long time horizon" investing fit in the debate? Vincent Huck reports
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To have and to hold, in good times and in bad... until debt do us apart
21 December 2020When markets are bumpy, insurers need govvies in their investment portfolios, but for much more it has only shortcomings. David Walker examines European underwriters' varied views on sovereigns
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Sunlife CIO on the art of catching flying daggers
16 December 2020COVID-19 was the 'known unknown' that Randy Brown, CIO at SunLife, has been preparing for the best part of the last five years. So, when markets went into turmoil in H1 2020 the only question that remained was one of timing: when to catch the falling knife? Interview by Vincent Huck
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US insurers timidly assessing climate risk
14 December 2020From increasingly fierce wildfires in California to recurring hurricane hits to the country's southern and eastern seaboards, US insurers are only too familiar with some intensifying effects of climate change, but are they doing anything about it? David Walker takes the temperature.
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Western & Southern: The equity pusher
09 December 2020The idea that insurers can only invest in fixed income is a myth for Cincinnati's Western & Southern CIO, Brendan White. The insurer has been stretching the mould by investing in equities for nigh on 30 years. White explains why it invests in stocks and how successful this has been in the torpid world of insurance investing. Interview by Sarfraz Thind
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Times when investment yield boosted fortunes are gone
07 December 2020S&P Global Ratings warned non-life firms to get their underwriting in order, David Walker reports
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CIO Interview: Macroeconomics is doomed, but investment opportunities still abound
02 December 2020Mapfre's group chief investment officer José Luis Jiménez reflects on the current economic crisis and points out pockets of opportunity for his team to explore. Interview by Vincent Huck
- M&G JV with Asian pension fund to invest £1bn in UK housing
- Insurance sector the "natural home" of productive assets, L&G says
- Barings acquires Sydney office building for AU $360m
- BoE zeroes in on private market risks to insurers and UK financial system
- Meiji Yasuda expands backing of regional revitalisation startup
- Insurance Development Forum reaches first close on Infrastructure Resilience Development Fund
- Chart of the Week - The rise and rise of (small) insurers investing in private assets
- Aviva Investors finances £175m loan for acquisition of central London property
- Private credit: the feel-good factor?
- Private credit: are headline news and underlying performance one and the same?