Archive

  • 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

  • Bowles on Omnibus II: "It took eight hours to agree three figures"

    21 March 2014

    Sharon Bowles has been instrumental in securing the passage of Solvency II. As she stands down from her European Parliament seat this year, she tells Jamie Bullen about the mistakes that were made, the value of patience and the possibility of further quick-fixes

  • RSA's Irish losses - bad luck or bad management?

    19 March 2014

    RSA's risk management was put under the spotlight last year by a host of unfortunate events, not least an accounting scandal that contributed to a £200m loss at its Irish division. Exonerated by external auditors, the incident has nonetheless raised questions around RSA's risk culture. Sarfraz Thind reports