Systemic risk methodology continues to worry insurers

The insurance industry is worried that new proposals for identifying global systemically important insurers fail to distinguish them properly from the banking sector. Insurers, they argue, represent a much lower systemic threat than banks, and they are concerned that not enough care is being taken to understand the specifics of their industry. Thomas Whittaker reports

The US bailout of American International Group (AIG) in 2008 has been consistently presented as an example of why some insurers need to be considered for inclusion as global systemically important financial institutions (G-Sifis) and face closer supervision from regulators. And the argument has gathered momentum. With the group of 20 major economies (G-20) urging progress on insurance reform, the International Association of Insurance Supervisors (IAIS) published a proposed assessment