Insurance
Allianz, Generali post €52bn in fair value losses in H1
Bond portfolio values crash as equities tailwinds fades
US pensions take hit as illiquid assets prove hard to shift
Corporate plans forced to sell alts at discount as insurers baulk at riskier investments
Cohen & Co yields 8% by lending to unrated insurance companies
Small firms in ‘the safest industry in the world’ can’t raise capital, creating a trading opportunity
Bermuda ‘examined’ PE insurers criticised by US senator
Premier David Burt is ‘confident’ pension assets reinsured on the island are ‘appropriately’ regulated
Basel rules mean banks can’t compete with Coinbase – Goldman
Proposed 1,250% risk weight for crypto holdings undercuts banks’ push into burgeoning market
SEC rule could stop pension funds investing in hedge funds
Hedge funds need to hold insurance to win US pension plan money. New rules would make cover too dear
Adapting to the new normal
The current interest rate environment and need to adapt to changing technology and regulatory mandates is keeping insurers on their toes, Nakul Nayyar, head of investment risk at Guardian Life, tells Risk.net
What do regulators need from governments on climate change?
To reduce the number of climate risk scenarios, lawmakers need to start being more specific
Apollo, KKR, Ares and the Bermudan CLO arbitrage
‘Capital efficiency’ may explain a 1,100% surge in life assets reinsured on the Atlantic island
Shadow US banks cool on riskier leveraged loans
Lowest-quality syndicated loans held by non-banks fall, though they remain well above pre-pandemic levels
Product innovations push deal contingents beyond M&A
Banks entice new users with hedges related to IPOs and bankruptcy procedures
Ruin problems in a discrete risk model in a Markovian environment
This paper finds that the derivations in a previous paper by Yang et al (2019) are erroneous, and analyzes the risk model model correctly using the matrix analytic method.
Asia moves: Trio of senior hires at Barclays, Credit Suisse and Deutsche Bank, and more
Latest job changes across the industry
SEC stock loan disclosure plan won’t make markets more equal
The GameStop saga showed that securities lending is opaque. New rules are unlikely to improve things
Sixth Street leads race to buy Allianz’s US annuity book
Credit investment firm spun out of TPG in 2020 snapping up insurance assets via its Tao fund
Asia moves: HSBC appoints new Apac head, Barclays hires country CEO for China, and more
Latest job changes across the industry
BlackRock’s own reporting undermines its climate claims
Axa, Allianz and Legal & General have all cut their investments’ emissions, unlike BlackRock
Applying scenario analysis to climate risk
Matthew Lightwood, director, risk solutions at Conning, discusses the application of stochastic modelling with scenario analysis to quantify climate risk in a portfolio
Asia moves: BIS appoints new chair for Asia council, VP Bank expands Asia leadership, and more
Latest job changes across the industry
Insurers’ favourite credit rating becomes more expensive
US institutions face a dilemma: go up a rating and lose yield or go down a rating and increase risk
Even Covid couldn’t stop insurers buying risky CLO tranches
NAIC rules make mezzanine debt more attractive than AAAs or corporate bonds with similar ratings
Aegon turns its back on pension deals in its home market
The Netherlands is Europe’s second-biggest pension market, but Aegon made little money from deals
The race to offload the world’s biggest pool of assets
Specialist insurers on both sides of the Atlantic expect a bumper post-Covid second half of 2021
Zurich’s Scott: don’t levy climate risk capital charges
Imposing set-asides based on stress tests “does not make any sense”, sustainability chief warns watchdogs