EU insurers show bias to own sovereigns

Forty-two percent of median EU country insurance sector's sovereign bond portfolio allocated to domestic government

The European banking watchdog's chief has sounded the alarm on lenders' concentration of exposures to their home sovereign – but they are not alone. Insurers' bond portfolios are also stuffed with paper issued by their domestic governments, exciting supervisors' concerns that those located in peripheral eurozone countries could see their assets decimated in a 'flight-to-safety' scenario. 

Data featured in a report issued jointly by European Union watchdogs on risks to the financial system show