Consultancy of the year: EY
In 2018, EY’s focus was on supporting clients with investments in equity release mortgages (ERMs), regulatory change such as the accounting standard IFRS 17, and environmental, social and governance (ESG) investing.
On ERMs, EY has worked with multiple insurers and asset managers on areas including product design, regulatory capital, valuation modelling and identifying sources of long-term funding.
The consultancy has also continued to advise asset managers and hedge funds on how to improve that attractiveness of their products to insurers by considering how to satisfy asset liability management (ALM) requirements and the constraints introduced by regulations such as Solvency II and IFRS 17.
As more insurers take an interest in investing in accordance with ESG criteria, EY has played a leading role in the Embankment Project for Inclusive Capitalism.
This project defines a framework for financial institutions to better reflect the long-term value they create through human, physical, financial and intellectual capital development.
In one case, EY supported a UK life insurer in developing its approach to ESG through performing a maturity scan of its industry peers as part of a benchmarking report. The benchmarking performed across UK life insurers was the first of its kind in the UK market.
The EY investment advisory team is also helping to shape ALM and investment execution functions.
For example, it has developed toolkits to allow users to interactively understand their existing risk exposures and calculate the potential financial impact arising from investment strategies.
The team has also assisted insurers in developing their strategic asset allocation frameworks to reflect their business objectives, constraints and risk appetite in order to identify opportunities for yield enhancement.
InsuranceERM’s judging panel praised EY for being “attuned to client needs and bringing rich insights”.
The judges also praised the examples where EY has helped clients to break ground with new solutions.