Insurers eye secondary annuities as perfect matching asset

Some UK firms see nascent market as source of ideal hedging tool

Cashflows from secondary annuities should mirror outgoings on the insurer's annuity book

Secondary annuities sound like the perfect asset-liability matching (ALM) asset for UK insurers: annuities bought from a competitor for a lump sum that pay cashflows for the lifetime of the selling annuitants. The cashflows in question should more or less mirror outgoings on the insurer's annuity book. But while some are embracing such a line of thinking, others are picking holes in it – not least regulators.

The UK's Prudential Regulation Authority (PRA) has said it will not allow secondary