Analysis

• China opens up opportunities for insurance asset management

  30 April 2014

  China Life's outsourcing of a $3.2bn investment mandate and a loosening of strict regulations has kickstarted interest in managing China's insurance assets. Hardeep Dhillon reports

• Annuity changes put corporate bonds under pressure

  23 April 2014

  Revisions to the UK's legislation around annuities is causing insurers to rethink investment strategies. Hardeep Dhillon examines the impact on sterling capital markets and demand for assets

• Infrastructure assets retain appeal for insurers

  17 April 2014

  Even if recent pension reforms result in falling demand for annuities in the UK, an increasingly competitive insurance market is likely to sustain the demand for high-yielding assets like infrastructure projects, say Michael Wilkins and Oliver Herbert

• Insurers "going backwards" on pillar 3 readiness

  16 April 2014

  The Ernst & Young (EY) Solvency II preparedness survey is one of the most comprehensive yardsticks of how ready insurers are for the new regime. This year's poll shows firms making progress in most areas - except pillar 3. Christopher Cundy reports.

• The UK pensions bombshell: opportunities among the wreckage?

  11 April 2014

  The UK annuities market is undergoing a dramatic change as the rules on retirement products are rewritten. In this article, Christopher Cundy looks at five major implications for products and strategy

• Gen Re's Tad Montross: why we need Solvency III

  09 April 2014

  Solvency II has focused too much on modelling and should be revisited, says Gen Re CEO Tad Montross. He tells Sarfraz Thind about "model mania", risk culture and how to run a reinsurer in a chronically soft market

• Emerging risks survey reveals "post-crisis" thinking

  04 April 2014

  This year's poll of North American risk managers shows a shift in concern away from the economic crisis and towards issues such as regulatory change and cyber risk. Christopher Cundy speaks to its author, Max Rudolph

• Reinterpreting the role of the CRO

  01 April 2014

  Despite the growing presence of chief risk officers (CROs) in the senior management teams of European insurers the industry is a long way from a common view of the role, and universally deriving value from it, say Mike Wilkinson and Patricia Mackenzie.

• World catching up with Europe on risk disclosure

  28 March 2014

  Guy Carpenter's latest study into ERM disclosures revealed insurers have made great leaps forward, with the most significant improvements among firms based outside Europe. The spectrum of risk metrics remains wide, but is becoming more consistent, the brokerage says.

• Exploring the regulator's approach to risk culture

  26 March 2014

  Using the theory of plural rationality, Dave Ingram, Michael Thompson, Alice Underwood and Elliot Varnell describe how the various approaches to insurance and financial regulation deal with risk - and how they cope in a crisis