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A strategy to suit each point in the insurance cycle
17 April 2013Choosing a strategy to cope with the ups and downs of the business cycle has been an enduring quest for insurers. Alice Underwood and Dave Ingram offer a solution
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Lloyd's Solvency II 'soft landing' is ICAS+ and a little bit more
22 March 2013Lloyd's of London has been in the vanguard of regulators when it comes to Solvency II preparations, sticking to a strict timetable with little leeway. It's now relaxed its plans after numerous delays to the directive, but is still forging ahead of the regulators. Lorna Davies reports
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Ageas's van Grimbergen: Matching adjustment is crucial for us
15 March 2013Solvency II's long-term guarantees package has the future of the life insurance industry in its hands, says Emmanuel van Grimbergen, group risk officer of Ageas. He talks to Lorna Davies about his concerns, as well as his doubts about Eiopa's 'interim measures'
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How the matching adjustment helps insurers in a crisis
28 February 2013Daily solvency monitoring offers valuable insights into an insurers' risk profile and its regulatory capital requirements – and demonstrates the potential power of the matching adjustment. Matthew Cocke, Russell Osman and Russell Ward explain
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The unresolved issues of Solvency II
21 February 2013The delay of full implementation to beyond 2014 will allow extra time for important details in all three pillars of Solvency II to be resolved – and may bring old niggles to the surface again. Lorna Davies looks into some of the outstanding issues, for policy-makers and insurers, that will be kicked over in the coming months
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Using least-squares Monte Carlo in a multi-year context
19 February 2013A year ago on this site, Michael Leitschkis and Mario Hoerig explained the advantages of least-squares Monte Carlo (LSMC) over other proxy modelling techniques for estimating capital. Here, with Florian Ketterer and Christian Bettels, they describe how to extend a one-year application of LSMC to scenarios of several years
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Insurance enterprise risk managment: the state it's in
14 February 2013Insurers' satisfaction with ERM grows, but plans for using economic capital stall - these are among the seven key findings from Towers Watson's recent worldwide survey. Christopher Cundy asks Laura Santori and Martin Pike to explain
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Pushing forward on principles-based reserving
31 January 2013US life insurers may soon be setting their reserves according to principles devised by the NAIC. In a Q&A with InsuranceERM, Julie McPeak, Tennessee insurance commissioner, explains the path ahead
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Searching for the right proxy approaches to life
29 January 2013Care has to be taken in using replicating portfolio techniques, least-squares Monte Carlo approaches and curve fitting for estimating the risk capital of a life insurer, as Tigran Kalberer and Zeljko Strkalj explain
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Learning from Japan's 'lost decades'
24 January 2013With much of Europe mired in a deepening recession, the parallels with Japan's 'lost decades' become ever more acute. Paul Fulcher and Teoman Kaplan explore whether European insurers can learn from their Japanese peers in how to deal with a prolonged state of stagnant economic growth and low interest rates