Analysis

• Stress-tested: How COVID-19 put insurers' investments under pressure

  14 September 2020

  The impact of the pandemic on insurers' claims remains unknown, and estimates vary widely. However, market turbulence in H1 has clearly impacted the asset side of insurers' balance sheets. Already, though, underwriters are looking ahead and rethinking investment decisions and ensuring resilience. Vincent Huck surveys the damage done and the plans afoot

  

• Lower-for-longer interest rates opens up EMD opportunities

  09 September 2020

  Emerging market sovereign debt is starting to find a place in insurers portfolios as they scratch around for return in the low rate environment. While still in its early days, insurance investors feel the asset class could become a shining light for insurance asset allocation. Stephanie Harris reports

  

• USA insurers search for the golden age of credit

  07 September 2020

  For the harried insurer, dealing with a projected lifetime of low interest rates, is there any value left in the corporate bond market? Some believe there is, and particularly so in that much-derided BBB segment. Sarfraz Thind reports

  

• Sustainable investing: how to implement what still needs to be defined?

  02 September 2020

  Lack of data and commonly agreed definitions are the main challenges for insurers in implementing their sustainable investment policies, chief investments officers tell Vincent Huck.

  

• It was all 'keep calm and carry on' for insurers in H1, GSAM's Comon says

  01 September 2020

  If insurers were ever characterised as slow to move and tardy to change, Goldman Sachs Asset Management head of insurance for EMEA Etienne Comon has another perspective. He talks to David Walker about the challenges insurers faced in H1 2020 and how their speedy reaction has aided resilience.

  

• Focusing on governance would drive greater sustainable outcomes and greater returns

  26 August 2020

  While ESG has become part of the investment lingo, its three pillars - E, S and G - do not carry the same weight depending on whether one speaks to the investment professional, the marketing people or the HR department. Vincent Huck reports

  

• The year USA investors woke to social investing

  24 August 2020

  The COVID-19 pandemic has affected the most vulnerable parts of society and highlighted social inequalities globally. In the USA, this combined with the death of George Floyd and the revitalisation of the Black Lives Matter movement, has prompted insurers to embrace 'social investing'. But is this a long-term trend or a one-off? Sarfraz Thind asks.

  

• Inside the mind of a responsible investor

  19 August 2020

  The head of responsible investment at a European insurer reveals to Insurance Asset Risk the internal politics of the decision-making process and challenges in promoting sustainability internally. Interview by Vincent Huck

  

• 'What if?' Sensitivity tests put to the test

  17 August 2020

  European insurers provide important details on the impact of different scenarios, often negative, on their solvency coverage. This gives valuable insight and market intelligence, but work is still needed on what insurers publish, David Walker finds

  

• Regulators have the sustainability power

  12 August 2020

  JP Morgan Asset Management and Insurance Asset Risk have joined forces to understand what lies under the bonnet of insurers' responsible investment announcements. Findings were compiled in a report. We present some of the key high- level discoveries, with part one focusing on regulation. Vincent Huck reports