Market insight

• Ethics & alpha: Can investing responsibly enhance returns?

  In recent years researchers from both academia and the asset management industry, drawing on an ever-expanding universe of data, have conducted numerous studies to establish whether such a relationship exists.

  

• Disruptive technologies challenge traditional infrastructure approach

  The future of infrastructure investment requires a dynamic, flexible, open-ended approach that takes into account the innovation in the sector and understands the potential positive impact on returns from emerging technologies.

  

• Emerging market corporate debt stands alone

  Emerging market corporate debt has been a rapidly growing universe over the last 10 years. What might be of surprise is that over 55% of the EM corporate universe is investment grade.

  

• Back to investment basics

  In this third and final article I look at investment strategies that “work” for insurers. Whilst touching on more modern diversified growth and absolute return bond fund strategies, we find opportunities that can be overlooked in plain vanilla equities, convertibles and even conventional multi asset strategies

  

• Innovation and quality the keys to pushing data's boundaries

  Today's technology environment is changing at lightning speed. At the centre of this revolution is information backed by tools like cloud, AI and machine learning. So how best to harness the technology?

  

• Getting comfortable with asset risk

  Dick Rae of BMO Global Asset Management explores how insurers' exposure to market risk varies and compares how typical British, French and German non-life companies behave

  

• Asset Risk Optimisation

  Dick Rae of BMO Global Asset Management looks at asset optimisation and the extent to which risk can influence asset allocation.

  

• Direct lending - an attractive source of long-term return

  An allocation into direct lending can provide insurers a diversified source of higher, less volatile returns over a longer-term time horizon

  

• Establishing and managing insurer investment strategies

  The changing regulatory landscape and current market environment are creating challenges for the establishment and management of insurers' investment strategies, including: understanding the impact of investment strategy on regulatory capital requirements, identifying new investment strategies to enhance yield, accessing alternative or illiquid assets, and designing a framework for more integrated modelling of assets and liabilities.

  

• Solvency II: clean asset data in the forefront of industry transformation

  Solvency II started as a regulatory act – designed to enhance risk management and to bring insurers a deeper understanding of their business, while also sharing this understanding with regulators. And this is largely what happened in the UK until the end of 2015.