All articles by LII editorial
LII editorial
An industry at a crucial crossroad
Though if taken at face value the UKs life insurance industry has enjoyed several years of outstanding growth, in reality this masks significant challenges The UK life insurance industry has enjoyed robust growth following the tough period between 2000 and 2003, during which time data from reinsurer Swiss Re reflects a 17 percent fall in total premium income to £98.65 billion ($196 billion)
CEA lobbies for block exempti
European life and reinsurance industry body the Comit Europen des Assurances (CEA) has strongly urged the European Commission (EC) to renew the Insurance Block Exemption Regulation (IBER) beyond its current March 2010 expiry date First introduced in 1992 and amended in March 2003 the IBER grants an exemption to the application of competition rules to certain types of agreements in the insurance sector
ING and Piraeus Bank extend alliance in Greece
ING and Piraeus Bank extend alliance in Greece Netherlands bancassurer ING Group and Greeces fourth-largest bank, Piraeus Bank, have extended an exclusive five-year distribution partnership first entered into in 2002 for another ten years
Zurich’s aggressive growth drive
Shrugging off international economic uncertainty, Swiss composite insurer Zurich Financial Services Group (Zurich) has announced ambitious new growth targets spearheaded by its Global Life unit Speaking at an analyst presentation in late-May, CEO of the unit Mario Greco announced that the new 2010 business value target has been set at $1.2 billion, an increase of 41 percent compared with the previous target of $850 million and an increase of 65 percent compared with the $729 million achieved in 2007. Outlining Global Lifes strategy Greco explained that it would involve a refinement of our strategic direction. This would include a shift from the current position in which operations in different countries function autonomously to one in which control would rest in regional hubs and the development of new products centralised in Dublin, Ireland.
Rating agencies face new attack
Already reeling under harsh criticism for their role in the US residential mortgage-backed securities fiasco, rating agencies are facing a new attack, this time for under-rating US municipal bonds The attack comes in the form of a law suit initiated by Connecticut attorney general Richard Blumenthal Blumenthals lawsuit names rating agencies Moodys Corporation and Fitch Incorporated and The McGraw-Hill Companies, parent company of rating agency Standard & Poors.
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PensionsFirst tackles defined benefit conundrum
PensionsFirst tackles defined benefit conundrum Claiming to offer a groundbreaking new approach to managing longevity exposure and market volatility risks for defined benefit DB pension schemes, PensionsFirst opened its doors for business in London in November PensionsFirst explained that its proprietary risk management platform enables it to separately analyse each of the risks a DB scheme faces such as longevity, inflation and investment market risks, down to the individual member level, and remove those exposures it does not wish to manage, while retaining those with which it is comfortable and for which it wishes to retain the upside potential
A tough market is getting tougher
During the first half of 2008 Chinas life insurance market recorded its highest growth in premium income in a decade For listed domestic insurers the reward has been plummeting share prices, while for foreign insurers as a group it has been a boom that has to a significant extent passed them by. Chinas life insurance industry has presented a mixed picture so far this year with surging premium income contrasting with sharp reversals in investment performance of a number of major players and substantial falls in share prices of listed insurers.
Alternative assets go mainstream
Exotic alternative asset classes have for many years been used by large financial institutions and their wealthy private clients as a means of risk diversification Now this investment avenue is about to become available to a far wider audience with the launch by asset manager Skandia Investment Group (SIG) of a multi-manager fund offering investors access to a range of alternative asset classes within a single structure. According to SIG, a unit of UK insurer Old Mutual, the new fund is unique in that instead of investing into one alternative asset class it will invest in 10.
Reinsurance lifeline thrown to insurers
Reinsurance lifeline thrown to insurers Even in the dire circumstance the worlds financial market finds itself in opportunities are presenting themselves to companies positioned to seize them This is the view German reinsurer Munich Re is taking as it eyes opportunities for reinsurance as a direct substitute for what has become a scarce resource, capital.
South Africa’s daunting protection gap
Though classified as a developing economy, South Africa boasts one of the highest life insurance penetration in the world 12.97 percent of GDP in 2006, according to reinsurer Swiss Re This ranks the country second in the world, behind only the UK on 13.11 percent, Despite this, a study commissioned by industry body the Life Offices Association (LOA) has revealed a yawning protection gap In the study undertaken by actuarial consultancy True South, actuaries Francois Hugo and Paul Zondagh found the total insurance gap ranges from between ZAR5.64 trillion ($745 billion) and ZAR10.33 trillion