Market insight

• 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.

  

• Wellington advise insurers to seek yield through municipal bonds

  European insurers are still hunting for yield and the US municipal bond market may provide an interesting and capital efficient solution. Bob Sharma and James Bradbury, EMEA Insurance Relationship Managers at Wellington Management explain.