Current economic environment ‘manageable’ for UK insurers, Moody’s says

Written by Adam Cadle

29/09/2022

UK insurers’ strong liquidity and robust capital positions, supported by the Bank of England’s intervention in the gilts market, will allow them to navigate the current volatility and illiquidity in swap and bond markets, Moody’s has stated.

The BoE said Wednesday it would buy UK government debt “on whatever scale is necessary” in an emergency intervention to halt a bond market crash that it warned could threaten financial stability.

Moody’s analyst Brandan Holmes said: “Many UK life insurers would have faced cash calls to satisfy variation margin requirements on their interest rate hedge positions this week – this would have been most meaningful for insurers with large annuity books – however we expect this to me manageable given their strong liquidity buffers”.

There are no related documents to show at this time.

Portfolio optimisation in today’s challenging market environment

Adam Cadle speaks to Dr Laura Ryan, Head of Research at Ardea Investment Management, about the firm’s insurance asset allocation optimisation tool and the reasons for developing it

The role ETFs can play in the ESG journey for insurers

Justin Wheeler, Head of UK iShares Asset Owner Distribution at BlackRock, and Mark Guirey, Head of EMEA Insurance Segment and UK Asset Owner Client Coverage at MSCI, discuss the drivers behind growth in this area, market reactions to COVID-19, and the role of indexing