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Think outside the box with private credit
07 November 2016The 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
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Unsticking the liquidity jam
02 November 2016Levels 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.
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Low yields and the Darwinian battle facing life insurers
31 October 2016The 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
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Negative equity threatens lifetime mortgage assets
26 October 2016The 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.
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The data crunch
19 October 2016Solvency 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.
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Challenging the definition of risk
12 October 2016In 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.
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Mortgaging the future
10 October 2016Insurers 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.
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The high yields and low defaults of taxable muni bonds
05 October 2016With 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.
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Why bond market liquidity is back on the worry list
28 September 2016JP 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.
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Getting the measure of credit downgrade risk
21 September 2016Investors 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.
- Comment: Insurers at the centre of pension de-risking's capital market shift
- Munich Re calls for "more pragmatic" regulatory approach to asset classification
- Bringing structured private credit to European insurers
- Insurance asset managers eye more risk taking in next 12 months
- Resolution Life seals $1bn block reinsurance deal in Hong Kong
- Swiss Life sells petrol station property in north of England
- Comment - Will Japanese couples stop giving birth to enough insurance CIOs?
- Royal London completes largest BPA deal to date
- Japan insurance trade body responds to IAIS paper on funded re and alternative investing
- 'Rise of the East and decline of the West' heralds "new era" for China's insurance AM