Analysis

Equity release mortgages: stopping the roof falling in

The Prudential Regulation Authority has shaken up life insurers by proposing new assumptions around the valuation of ERMs. The more prudent approach seeks to avoid a potential disaster if house prices stagnate or crash, but the impact on insurers could be serious. Christopher Cundy reports

Efrag makes preliminary call on IFRS 17 issues and timeline

The EU accounting standards advisory body has acknowledged the "very challenging" implementation timelines for IFRS 17 and shared its thoughts on other potential problems with the incoming standard for insurance contracts. Cintia Cheong and Christopher Cundy report

NN's Jan-Hendrik Erasmus: finding the win-win in insurtech

NN Group has been an eager participant in the insurtech revolution. Chief risk officer and global IT leader Jan-Hendrik Erasmus tells David Walker how the Dutch insurer's tech strategy has evolved

GDPR data requests - a flood or a trickle?

The EU's General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) was introduced on 25 May with warnings that insurers would be inundated with customers requesting details of the personal data held on them. Now, almost eight weeks later, have these requests materialised? Paul Walsh investigates

Holloway Friendly breaks the mould with readable, educational SFCR

The UK friendly society has taken a radical approach to its Solvency II public reporting, creating a document that can be understood by non-experts but still meeting regulatory requirements. InsuranceERM spoke with chief financial officer Paul Harwood to understand the firm's motives and ask how the redesigned SFCR has been received

Insurtech brings new challenges to CRO role

Aggelos Andreou asks chief risk officers how they are coping with the opportunities and threats emerging technologies are posing to their firms, and what impact technology will have on the risk function itself

Finding a role for insurance in a technology-driven economy

In the second article in his series on intangible asset risk, Tim Freestone explores why the growth in intellectual property and patent risks has not been matched by a corresponding growth in insurance

EU supervisors insist Solvency II risk margin "is not an issue"

Insurers’ calls for a recalibration of the risk margin are being ignored by Eiopa and national supervisors, as evidenced at Insurance Europe's conference in Brussels last week. Aggelos Andreou reports

EU and UK authorities diverge on Brexit preparations

Eiopa repeats its advice to EU insurers to take contingency measures, while UK supervisors step up and reveal legislative plans. Aggelos Andreou reports

German actuaries tell Eiopa: "Stick to your remit"

DAV vice-president Guido Bader talks to David Walker about how the country's actuaries are concerned by Eiopa's new ideas for Solvency II – and the lack of testing around them

IFRS 17 earnings recognition: challenges, opportunities and innovations

Luca Tres and Adam Robinson discuss IFRS 17 and its earning recognition criteria from a capital markets and insurance practitioner's perspective, and consider the challenges and the opportunities this presents

Mapfre's Antonio Huertas: there should be one global capital regime

Mapfre's chief executive tells Cintia Cheong about the challenges and risks at the top of the Spanish insurer's agenda, including underinsurance, Solvency II and IFRS 17

Improving the three lines of defence model

In the follow-up to his article on why the insurance industry needs a new risk governance model, Henry Essert describes how a risk function can better oversee a risk-taking business and deal with strategic threats more effectively

How to implement an effective and compliant model validation process

Ashish Kwatra and Jennifer (Kang) Khaleghy continue to share their experiences around successful internal model approval programmes with a focus on independent model validation – an area closely scrutinised by the regulator

Marine insurance blockchain platform hopes to cut costs, risks and capital

The world's first blockchain platform for the marine insurance sector was launched at the end of May. Paul Walsh sits down with some of the platform's leaders to discuss how it will save costs and reduce risk

SFCRs: "We're not sure any policyholders read them"

Insurers say their solvency and financial condition reports (SFCRs) are barely read by customers, so how should they evolve to better suit their audience? Christopher Cundy reports on this and other views and experiences with the public Solvency II document

2018 Atlantic hurricane season - the calm after the storm?

Last year's Atlantic hurricane season was one of the most catastrophic in recent memory with insured losses estimated at over $130bn. Now 12 months later and on the first official day of the season, forecasters believe relative calmness awaits. But forecasters are often wrong. Paul Walsh reports.