Macroeconomics have, perhaps, never been as important to CIOs as they are today. Ongoing uncertainty about the COVID-19 pandemic, a new US government, Brexit considerations back in the spotlight in the UK, the EU in political turmoil, Germany waving goodbye to 16 years of 'Merkelism', Asia continuing its exponential rise.
This geopolitical context, combined with the familiar spectre of low/negative interest rates, is setting quite a few traps in the way of insurers' investment decisions.
As they consider increasing allocations to alternative asset classes and in particular to real assets, insurers' CIOs will need to be aware of the tortuous path ahead.
Those themes, and more, will be discussed on the 27 May at an Insurance Asset Risk conference on investing in real assets, held virtually.
In particular, the first panel of the day will look at the macroeconomic landscape for insurers' investments.
The panel moderator, Alberto Matellán Pinilla, chief economist at MAPFRE, plans to explore with panelists "the current trends, in particular inflation risk, before looking at the growing importance of sustainability considerations when investing in real assets".
"I will also ask panelists to detail the drivers of their decisions on investing in real assets, deep-diving into performance, asset characteristics and regulatory considerations," he explains.
Panelists for that session will be:
- Andrew Bailey, director of financial risk, Just Group Plc
- Huayin Liu, chief investment officer, UNA Seguros
- Massimo di Tria, chief investment officer, Gruppo Cattolica Assicurazioni
More information about the event's agenda and how to register are available here.
Channels:Risk