The winners of the Insurance Asset Management Awards 2020 were announced last night via a special video broadcast.

Returning for a fourth year in 2020, the Insurance Asset Management Awards are designed to recognise outstanding achievement in the UK and global insurance investment spaces among insurance companies, providers and individuals

Few US insurers have reported altering their investment strategy in response to considerations of the impact of climate change on investment portfolios, findings published by the National Association of Insurance Commissioners (NAIC) have revealed

Ageas has successfully placed debt securities in the form of €500m subordinated fixed to floating rate notes maturing in November 2051 and with a first call date in 2031

Qatar Insurance Group has recently announced the appointment of Hasan Al-Lawati as the new CEO for its subsidiary Oman Qatar Insurance Company (OQIC)

Pension Insurance Corporation (PIC) has invested £65m in debt issued by Pobl, a housing association based in Newport, Wales

Skandia has invested SEK 1bn in train infrastructure via a bond issued by the Eurofima partner body

Aviva has reported a 13.8% decline in the value of new business (VNB) written by its life insurance business, which stood at £714m in the first nine months of the year

Fitch Ratings is maintaining German non-life insurance in 2021 on a stable sector outlook

The board of supervisors of the European Insurance and Occupational Pensions Authority (EIOPA) has re-elected Peter Braumüller, managing director of insurance and pension supervision at the Austrian Financial Market Authority (FMA) as vice-chairperson of EIOPA

Sixty-six per cent of institutional investors in Germany and the US expect institutional investors to increase their exposure to Germany over the next 12 months, according to latest research

Bank of England (BoE) regulators are looking to rejig Solvency II (SII) regulations in Britian as quickly as possible after the Brexit transition period ends, BoE executive director of prudential policy Victoria Saporta has said

The European Insurance and Occupational Pensions Authority (EIOPA) has published a consultation on the statement on supervisory practices and expectations in case of breach of the Solvency Capital Requirement (SCR)

Net sales of UCITS and AIFs totalled €32bn in September, up from €30bn in August, according to the latest data from the European Fund and Asset Management Association (EFAMA)

The Swiss Financial Market Supervisory Authority (FINMA) intends to continue to emphasise robust capital and liquidity buffers in its supervision of insurers and financial institutions

The UK life insurance sector outlook for 2021 is worsening, driven by lower interest rates in 2020 and substantial downside risks to interest rates and credit markets in 2021, Fitch Ratings has said

Asia-Pacific’s private market AuM will grow from $1.62trn in 2019 to $4.97trn in 2025, at
a world-beating CAGR of 25.2%, according to research published by Preqin

Fitch Ratings' sector outlook for the French insurance sector in 2021 is worsening for the life segment and is stable for non-life

Aviva has agreed to sell its entire 80% shareholding in the Italian life insurance joint venture, Aviva Vita S.p.A. (Aviva Vita), to its partner UBI Banca

BNP Paribas Asset Management (BNPP AM) has announced the further strengthening of its private debt & real assets (PDRA) investment division

Zurich is in discussions to acquire MetLife’s US P&C business for close to $4bn

Following gradual annual increases over the last decade, US insurers’ exposure to NAIC-2 designated bonds as a percentage of total bonds was unchanged at 30% at year-end 2019 compared to year-end 2018, latest figures published by the NAIC have shown

Total assets of Chinese insurance companies amounted to RMB 22.4trn at the end of Q3 2020, increasing by RMB 1.9trn and up by 9.1% from the beginning of the year

QBE Insurance Group (QBE) has become the first Australian insurer to become a member of the UN-convened Net-Zero Asset Owner Alliance, committing to a net-zero emissions investment portfolio by 2050

J.P. Morgan Asset Management (JPMAM) has appointed Paolo Gazzola as an executive director

Forty-five per cent of total assets under management (AuM) in Europe at the end of 2019 were invested in some sort of ESG selection strategy, a new report by the European Fund and Asset Management Association (EFAMA) has shown

The financial industry must do more to help in the fight against climate change, Professor Martin Siegert, Professor of Geosciences and co-director of the Grantham Institute at Imperial College London, has warned

Sustainable investing assets now account for $17.1trn - or 1 in 3 dollars - of the total US assets under professional management, representing a 42% increase over 2018, The US SIF Foundation's 2020 biennial report on US Sustainable and Impact Investing Trends has found

Four Japanese insurers have revealed plans to strengthen their environmental, social and governance (ESG) investments in the second half of fiscal 2020, amid mounting public pressure for insurers to practice sustainable investment practices

British insurer RSA has agreed a £7.2bn takeover from Intact Financial Corporation and the Scandinavian insurer Tryg

Pension Insurance Corporation (PIC) has appointed Wellington Management (Wellington) to manage its US municipal bonds (muni bonds) portfolio

MAPFRE has continued the diversification of its investment portfolio with the acquisition of an office building in the London neighborhood of Fitzrovia thorugh the SIEREF-GLL fund, which the insurer launches with its managing partner GLL Real Estate Partners (Macquarie Group)

The Australian Securities and Investments Commission (ASIC) is calling on insurers to respond to a new accounting standard for insurance contracts

German institutional investors have reduced their home bias over the past three decades but this has shifted to eurozone ‘near bias’ instead, according to a report by Union Investment

Zurich Insurance Group has become the first large institutional investor to prioritise the environmental and social goals of its impact investment portfolio following its AUM reaching $5bn

Premium income in the life and non-life Italian business in the first six months of 2020 amounted to €68bn, down by 9.2% compared to the first half of 2019, according to latest figures published by Italy's Institute for the Supervision of Insurance (IVASS)

Failure to act on stakeholder pressure around ESG issues could lead to long-term reputational challenges for their organisation, insurance companies in Europe and Asia Pacific have said

Eighty per cent of European professional investors now have social real estate firmly on their radar as an investment opportunity and over the next two years around 30% expect institutional investors to increase their real estate allocation to funds offering a social benefit

Swiss insurance company Helvetia has issued its first green hybrid bond worth CHF 200m, enabling its investors to participate in and support its sustainability targets

The Swiss Financial Market Supervisory Authority (FINMA) is conducting a public consultation around bank and insurer disclosures concerning climate change and financial risks

Aberdeen Standard Investments (ASI) has launched a range of sustainable index funds within a tax efficient Authorised Contractual Scheme (ACS) structure aimed at pension funds and other institutional investors

Conning has announced the launch of a new Climate Risk Reporting and Scenario Service, equipping institutional investors with the tools and analytics needed to assess portfolio risk under a range of climate change stresses

Zurich has seen its property & casualty (P&C) gross written premiums rise by 3% on a like-for-like basis for the nine months ended 30 September 2020 compared to a year earlier

Turkish insurers' insurer financial strength ratings are under pressure from the negative outlooks on the Turkish sovereign and Turkish banks' ratings, Fitch Ratings has said

Two of Denmark’s largest pension funds, PKA and PenSam, have joined forces with Norway’s Storebrand to establish a new climate and infrastructure fund of up to DKK 30bn, under the auspices of AIP Management

The Prudential Staff Pension Scheme has secured a longevity swap deal with Pacific Life Re, covering £3.7bn of pension liabilities, the fifth largest UK longevity swap on record

Japanese property and casualty (P&C) insurers' adoption of environmental, social and governance (ESG) initiatives is a long-term positive, but faces near-term hurdles in the form of legacy practices that undermine their flexibility in managing evolving trends, Moody's has said

Luxembourg’s insurance sector saw premiums fall by 22.52% in Q3 2020, compared to the same period in 2019, as a result of COVID-19

Alternative assets will hit more than $17trn in AuM by 2025, up from $10.74trn at the end of 2020, latest data has shown

HM Treasury has said EEA states are equivalent for the purposes of Solvency II (SII) articles 378, 379 and 380

Local companies in the Philippine insurance industry will still face significant pressure on profitability amid the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic with the recent rejection of a proposal to relax minimum capital requirements, AM Best has said

AIG’s total consolidated net investment income increased to $3.8bn in Q3 2020, compared to $3.4bn in the prior year quarter, and net investment income on an APTI basis increased $271m primarily reflecting higher private equity and hedge fund returns

The Association of British Insurers (ABI) has appointed Pension Insurance Corporation (PIC) CEO Tracy Blackwell, Rothesay CEO Addy Loudiadis and Phoenix Group CEO savings and retirement UK & Europe and group director Scotland Andy Curran to its board

Scottish Widows is to divest at least £440m from companies that have failed to meet its environmental, social and governance (ESG) standards, and warned this figure could grow much further if companies do not take action to improve the sustainability of their business practices

Australian life and non-life insurers' earnings are likely to fall due to top-line pressure and weaker investment revenue, Fitch Ratings has said in a new report

The Financial Accounting Standards Board (FASB) has issued an Accounting Standards Update (ASU) that will help insurance companies adversely affected by the COVID-19 pandemic by giving them an additional year to implement Accounting Standards Update No. 2018-12, Financial Services—Insurance (Topic 944): Targeted Improvements to the Accounting for Long-Duration Contracts (LDTI)

The risk exposures of the European Union (EU) insurance sector have slightly reduced since EIOPA published its July risk assessment update

Members of the 30-strong UN-convened Net-Zero Asset Owner Alliance have published their position on thermal coal, calling for the cancellation of all new thermal coal projects, a phase-out of all unabated existing coal-fired electricity generation and a cessation of the financing, development and planning of further thermal coal power plants

RSA Insurance Group has received a £7.1bn takeover bid from Canada’s Intact Financial and Danish insurer Tryg, in what could be the biggest acquisition of a UK-listed company this year

BNP Paribas Asset Management (BNPP AM) has appointed Séverine Piquet as head of corporate credit research

MetLife’s net investment income was $4.7bn for Q3 2020, up 2% from the third quarter of 2019 driven by higher private equity returns

As of year-end 2019, US insurers’ investment in emerging markets bonds and stocks totalled $48.4bn in book/adjusted carrying value (BACV), which was less than 1% of total cash and invested assets; bonds accounted for the majority, at $46.9bn, according to a report published by the National Association of Insurance Commissioners (NAIC)

The approach of EIOPA and the ESRB to the Solvency II review undermines insurers in facilitating the EC’s Capital Markets Union and Green Deal objectives, Insurance Europe has said

Less than 1% of total assets of the French insurance sector are exposed to the coal industry, a new report has revealed

Global alternative investment manager Ares has made Raj Krishnan partner and chief investment officer of Ares Insurance Solutions (AIS)

The outlook for German life insurers for 2021 is negative, reflecting the pressure low-interest rates exert on earnings and solvency, Moody’s Investors Service said in a report published today

Forty-nine per cent of global insurers are expecting to increase their allocation to real assets investment strategies over the next 12 months, a new study has revealed

The New York State Department of Financial Services (DFS) superintendent Linda Lacewell has announced a settlement worth $6m with Principal Life Insurance Company for annuity replacement violations

MAPFRE’s total assets have fallen 5% from the close of 2019 and now stand at €68.8bn due to stock market falls, currency depreciation and reduced activity

French life insurers recorded net inflows for September of –€0.8bn

Allianz and Telefónica have reached an agreement for the creation of a joint venture to deploy Fibre-to-the-Home (FTTH) in Germany

The National Association of Insurance Commissioners (NAIC) is proposing to add its new group capital calculation (GCC) requirement to the existing Insurance Holding Company Systems Model Act (Holding Company Act)

Finnish pension insurance company, Elo, has further strengthened its solvency position after the third quarter (Q3), it has revealed

Net income for the private US property & casualty (P&C) insurance industry dropped 26% in the first half of 2020, as the effects of COVID-19 began to hurt insurer underwriting results and investment gains, according to data analytics provider Verisk and the American Property Casualty Insurance Association (APCIA)

Active engagement and stewardship have leapt in importance as a way for asset managers to drive sustainable change, Schroders Institutional Investor Study 2020 has found

Adani’s insurer and Lloyd’s of London syndicate Apollo has dropped Adani’s coal project after pressure from climate campaigners

Government bonds formed 52.9% of total investments made by Italian insurers in H1 2020, compared to 52.7% in H1 2019

Net sales of UCITS and AIF’s totalled €30bn in August, almost €100bn lower than the €124bn recorded in July 2020, according to the European Fund and Asset Management Association (EFAMA)

AIG is to separate its life insurance arm from its larger property and casualty (P&C) business

Nippon Life has invested approximately JPY 11.4bn in sustainable development bonds issued by the International Bank for Reconstruction and Development (World Bank)

EIOPA has launched a program of targeted training on insurance supervision for 17 national competent authorities (NCA)

The Malaysian general insurance industry is expected to contract by 2.2% in 2020, primarily due to weak consumer demand and suspension of economic activity due to the lockdown restrictions in the aftermath of COVID-19 pandemic, according to GlobalData

Skandia has upped its commitment to sustainable investments, after its portfolio showed signs of a “stable” recovery during Q3

The Stop Adani campaign and Pacific Climate Warriors will join forces on 27 and 28 October to call on Lloyd’s of London and its members to follow the lead of 23 major insurance companies, including several Lloyd’s syndicates, and stop insuring Adani’s Carmichael coal mine in Australia

Sun Life Financial intends to acquire a 51% stake in Crescent Capital Group (Crescent), worth up to US$338m

The FCA and the PRA have sent a letter to the CEOs of insurance providers in the UK concerning their contingency plans once the Brexit transitional period finishes in 2021

The majority of countries in the European (re)insurance sector (17 out of 31) reported a median SCR ratio of over 200%, and for all countries a median MCR above 250% for year-end

Life insurance company Storebrand has seen its assets under management (AuM) increase by NOK 134bn to NOK 921bn for Q3 2020, up by 17% compared to the corresponding period last year, due to market returns and net flows from institutional customers

More than three quarters of insurers (78%) have said the impact of COVID-19 is accelerating their focus on ESG

US property/casualty insurers reported premium returns of $8.5bn during the first half of 2020, owing to the COVID-19 pandemic, according to a new AM Best commentary

The Insurance Regulatory Development Authority of India (IRDAI) proposal to amend the regulations around investments in infrastructure investment trusts (InvITs) is expected to open an alternate source of investments for Indian insurers, according to GlobalData

Robeco has expanded its insurance team by appointing Clara Yan as head of insurance analytics

HM Treasury has today issued a call for evidence as part of a review into Solvency II (SII)

The International Association of Insurance Supervisors (IAIS) has developed a draft application paper on the supervision of climate-related risks in the insurance sector, jointly with the Sustainable Insurance Forum (SIF)

Montefiore Investment is to manage the Nov Tourisme – unlisted shares Sustainable Stimulus France fund

Europe’s insurers are urging the European Commission (EC) to make European Long-Term Investment Funds (ELTIF) more attractive by making changes around fund design, portfolio composition and eligibility of investment assets

Assets under management (AuM) at the world’s 500 largest asset managers exceeded $100trn for the first time in 2019 – totalling $104.4trn, according to new research published by the Thinking Ahead Institute

Gross written premiums in the Hong Kong insurance industry hit $566.9bn in 2019, a year-on-year growth of 10.2%

Skandia has invested SEK 365m in a water bond issued by the Nordic Investment Bank (NIB)

AXA has completed the sale of its life and savings, property and casualty and pension businesses in Poland, Czech Republic and Slovakia to UNIQA, for a total cash consideration of €1bn.

Aspen has appointed Tony Rai as head of Aspen Insurance UK (AIUK)

Moody’s Investors Service has outlined the significant challenges for the insurance industry from the coronavirus pandemic and the consequent economic slowdown

Insurance Europe believes that an appropriately designed climate change stress test could provide information to help assess industry exposures, but said liquidity risk is already well managed due to existing regulatory provisions

The Achmea Innovation Fund is taking a significant non-controlling interest in Land Life Company and as a result will become the largest external investor in this reforestation company

The global green bond market is set to grow from around the current level of €662/672bn to €1trn by the end of 2021 and €2trn by the end of 2023, according to NN Investment Partners (NN IP)

Macquarie Infrastructure Debt Investment Solutions (MIDIS) has raised approximately €1.2bn from institutional investors to invest in sub-investment grade infrastructure debt

The Australian Prudential Regulation Authority (APRA) has announced its commitment to align its prudential standards and practices with the International Association of Insurance Supervisors’ (IAIS) Common Framework for the Supervision of Internationally Active Insurance Groups (ComFrame), where appropriate

With less than a year and a half to go before the London Interbank Offered Rate (LIBOR) will no longer be available, several areas of concern remain, according to a new AM Best commentary

EIOPA is calling on the insurance sector to complete preparations for the end of the UK transition period

State Street Corporation and investment management solutions and service provider, SimCorp, have announced their intent to form a business partnership to provide a fully integrated, front-to-back investment outsourcing solution for insurance firms in Europe, Middle East and Africa (EMEA)

Analytics firm SAS has launched a new solution to help US insurers navigate and comply with the Financial Accounting Standards Board’s (FASB) Long-Duration Targeted Improvements standard – known as LDTI

Nippon Life has invested JPY 1.8bn in social bonds issued by the University of Tokyo (UTokyo)

Scandinavian insurance company Tryg has seen its investment income swing from DKK -29m in Q3 2019 to DKK 237m in Q3 2020

Morgan Stanley is to acquire Eaton Vance, a provider of advanced investment strategies and wealth management solutions with over $500bn in assets under management (AUM), for an equity value of approximately $7bn

Allianz Global Investors has appointed Matt Christensen as global head of sustainable and impact investing

The US insurance industry’s foreign exposure (including bonds, common stocks [affiliated and unaffiliated] and preferred stocks) was $566bn in BACV at year-end 2019, representing a 5.2% decrease from $597.7bn in total foreign investments at year-end 2018

US life insurer investment portfolio losses, which have generally been manageable amid the fallout of the COVID-19 pandemic, are expected to become more impactful to ratings in 2021, Fitch Ratings has said

Almost 80% of global asset managers now explicitly incorporate qualitative or quantitative ESG factor assessments into their investment processes, an increase of 5% compared to last year

MACIF has announced the launch of the MACIF Impact social and solidarity (ESS) company

Allianz Capital Partners on behalf of Allianz insurance companies (Allianz) has closed the acquisition of its first renewable energy installations in Poland from ENERTRAG, consisting of nine sites split into two projects, Dargikowo and Karlino

The European insurance industry is fully supportive of an EU Green Bond Standard (GBS), agrees with its proposed components and appreciates that it seeks alignment with the EU taxonomy for sustainable investments

The proliferation of ETF offerings, changing regulatory treatment, availability of actively managed products, and proven liquidity are changing US institutional bond investors' (insurance general accounts) views of ETF assets, with aggressive growth expected to occur in this area

German insurance company Gothaer is taking a further step towards sustainable capital investment with membership of the Global Real Estate Sustainability Benchmark (GRESB)

The Australian Prudential Regulation Authority (APRA) is commencing the roll-out of a new model for assessing the risks faced by banks, insurers and superannuation licensees

Swedish insurance company Länsförsäkringar Fondförvaltning has decided to remove all gambling operators from its portfolios

Skandia is launching a climate roadmap that will reduce Skandia Life's holdings in fossil fuels by 75% by 2025

Nigeria’s insurance market regulator, NAICOM, has agreed to further delay its revised plans to strengthen market capitalisation and limit the volume of premium flowing out of the country due to the COVID-19-driven economic slowdown

Following the completion of the acquisition of Seguradoras Unidas S.A. in Portugal in January, Generali has concluded the process of the legal merger of all its 100% owned insurance subsidiaries in Portugal

French life insurance continues to see a significant outflow since the beginning of the year, compared to 2019, however latest figures show unit-linked premiums are still making a major contribution to financing companies

LV= is in talks with Bain Capital LP over a potential deal for a full or partial sale

EIOPA is consulting on the use of climate change risk scenarios in the Own Risk and Solvency Assessment (ORSA)

Insr has today approved the sale of insurance portfolios to Storebrand, initially announced in a stock exchange notification on 14 August 2020

The Reserve Bank of New Zealand (RBNZ) has announced it will be commencing with a review into insurer solvency standards

EIOPA has announced it is launching a European-wide study on diversification in internal models

The National Association of Insurance Commissioners (NAIC) has selected Conning to provide the Association with its Economic Scenario Generator tool

The Dai-ichi Life Insurance Company (DLIC) has announced that it is to introduce an ESG index as its benchmark for foreign equity investments managed in-house

The Office of the Superintendent of Financial Institutions (OSFI) has released three documents that update the timelines for Canadian insurers to implement IFRS 17

Macquarie Infrastructure Debt Investment Solutions has announced a £120m long-term debt investment in a portfolio of energy from waste assets operated by Viridor

Everest Re has announced the appointments of Mark Kociancic as executive vice president and group chief financial officer, and Jim Williamson as executive vice president and group chief operating officer

Rothesay Life has announced that an agreement has been reached by GIC and Massachusetts Mutual Life Insurance Company (MassMutual), to acquire Blackstone’s 36% shareholding in Rothesay Life

LGIM Real Assets has announced the forward funding of an £81.5m mixed use regeneration scheme in Glasgow, on behalf of its Build to Rent (BTR) Fund

Aviva Investors, the global asset management business of Aviva, has provided CLS Holdings with a £154m senior debt facility towards the refinancing of 12 UK assets

American Equity Investment Life Holding Company, Värde Partners, and Agam Capital Management have reached an agreement in principle to form a new strategic partnership

The FCA has confirmed that it has filed a ‘leapfrog’ application to appeal to the Supreme Court over the ruling of its Business Interruption (BI) insurance test case

Baloise has announced a new “strategic” long-term equity investment in property technology start-up, Houzy

MetLife has announced that it plans to reduce its greenhouse gas emissions by 30% from 2019 levels by 2030, and intends to originate $20bn of new green investments over the next 10 years

American Financial Group (AFG) has reached an agreement to sell GAI Holding Bermuda and its subsidiaries, which comprise the legal entities that own its Lloyd’s of London insurer, Neon, to RiverStone Holdings Limited

QBE Insurance Group (QBE) has announced it is signing on as a participant of the world’s largest corporate sustainability initiative, the United Nations (UN) Global Compact

Leading representatives from the UK and US financial and related professional services industries have joined together to propose a united business vision for future UK-US regulatory cooperation and dialogue

The European Commission’s (EC) plan to assess, as part of the Solvency II review, how the regulatory framework could be amended to further enable long-term investment by insurance companies, has been welcomed by Insurance Europe

Robeco is extending its exclusion policy for fossil fuel producers and users to its entire range of strategies to help combat global warming

Adjustments to Solvency II “should be coordinated as ideally as possible with the EU’s Green Deal plans”, and “not thwart them”, member of the GDV executive board and chairman of the management Jörg von Fürstenwerth has said

Aviva has completed a £142m bulk purchase annuity buy-in transaction with the TI Group Pension Scheme, whose sponsoring employer is Smiths Group, a leading industrial technology company

Munich Re has issued a subordinated green bond, the first in the reinsurer's history, with the volume issued amounting to €1.25bn

Climate change is leapfrogging Brexit as a key risk for the insurance industry, latest research has shown

The majority of global banks, asset managers, and insurers have said they are on track with their plans to migrate from IBOR-linked benchmark rates to alternative reference rates at the end of 2021, despite the disruption caused by the coronavirus pandemic, according to a survey by Moody's Investors Service

The New York Department of Financial Services will begin evaluating insurers' approaches to managing climate risk, although has stopped short of imposing penalties for non-compliance

Net premiums written (NPW) for AM Best-related mutuals grew by a modest 2.6% in 2019

Sompo has become the first Japanese insurance company to adopt a position on coal

Unipol Gruppo has completed the placement among domestic and international institutional investors of senior unsecured non-convertible notes, under its recently renewed EMTN programme, for a nominal amount equal to €750m with an issue date on 23 September and a 10-year tenor (therefore until its maturity on 23 September 2030)

The sound capital positions of the insurance sector before the COVID-19 shock provided undertakings with certain buffers, according to EIOPA, with a median Solvency Capital Ratio (SCR) of 213% being recorded in Q4 2019. A deteriorating solvency position has been observed in Q1 2020, with an SCR ratio decreasing by 12pp to 200%

US insurers are becoming increasingly attracted to private-equity (PE)-driven mergers and acquisitions (M&A), as “the most challenged institutional investors” continue to be “battered” by a return to ultra-low interest rates, a new report has said

Achmea has proposed to distribute capital to shareholders following the results of 2019 at a value of just over €169m.

Misconceptions around the suitability of timber as a major project construction material is hampering progress in in sustainable development, according to campaign group, the Time for Timber. It said insurers and investors must be more open to dialogue with the timber construction industry for the good of the economy and the environment

Korea Post is hiring a domestic asset manager for a global hedge fund mandate of unspecified value for its insurance unit

Zurich has announced the successful placement of €200m of dated subordinated notes

Národná banka Slovenska (NBS), the Slovakian national supervisory authority, has issued an interim measure banning new business from NOVIS Insurance Company, NOVIS Versicherungsgesellschaft, NOVIS Compagnia di Assicurazioni, NOVIS Poisťovňa a.s. (NOVIS), until specified conditions are fulfilled by NOVIS

The Bank of England (BoE) has announced that the UK base interest rate will remain at 0.1%

Norwegian insurance company Gjensidige has decided to distribute a dividend based on the profit for the 2019 financial year of NOK 6,125m.

Aberdeen Standard Investments (ASI) has announced that Mark Redman will succeed Peter McKellar as global head of private markets

The China’s general insurance industry is forecast to grow by 3.8% in 2020, compared to 5.7% registered in 2019, according to GlobalData

QBE Insurance Group (QBE) has grown its Premiums4Good portfolio to $904m and is on track to reach its impact investment allocation target of $1bn by 2021, according to the 2019-2020 QBE Premiums4Good Investment Impact Report.

Bulk annuity sales reached a “substantial” £12.7bn in the first half of 2020, with 'repeat buyers' predominantly driving market volume, analysis by Aon has found

Pension insurance company Varma is to expand its sustainable equities portfolio to up to €1bn and aims to make the entire €45bn investment portfolio carbon neutral by 2035

The result of the FCA’s business interruption (BI) test case is “broadly credit negative” for UK insurers and reinsurers, Moody’s has said, but despite the outcome the financial impact on individual insurers should be “manageable, net of reinsurance”

Reinsurers in the Asia-Pacific region will have to accept lower and more volatile investment yields or take on higher asset risks in the near term, and therefore may choose to revisit the management of their core business to deliver more profitable technical results, AM Best has said

Aviva CEO Amanda Blanc has spent £1m on shares at the insurer

Aviva has agreed to sell a majority shareholding in Aviva Singapore to a consortium led by Singapore Life. In Singapore, the new business will be initially branded as Aviva Singlife

Any future intra-EU investment protection and facilitation initiative should not lead to “sudden and retroactive changes to local investment frameworks”, Insurance Europe has argued

SCOR has successfully placed a dated subordinated Tier 2 notes issue in the amount of €300m

Cattolica Assicurazioni has stuck to its guidance for 2020 for operating profits of €350-375m, after reporting better than expected first-half operating profit

Swiss insurance companies achieved aggregate annual profits of CHF 15.2bn in 2019, which represents a 44% increase over the previous year

A new report published today by the Ellen MacArthur Foundation entitled Financing the circular economy – capturing the opportunity highlights the rapid growth in investment and other financial services activity in the circular economy, and also calls on the financial sector to build on this momentum

SCOR has recorded total unrealised gains on invested assets of around €680m, up €208m compared to 31 December 2019

Hamilton Insurance Group has appointed Megan Thomas as chief executive officer of Hamilton Re, the company’s reinsurance and insurance platform in Bermuda

Pension Insurance Corporation (PIC) completed £3.5bn of bulk annuity deals in H1 2020, down from the £6bn worth of transactions in H1 2019, its half-year results have revealed

International Cooperative and Mutual Insurance Federation (ICMIF) member Folksam is investing SEK 474m in the Swedish government's first green bond

The Bank of England (BoE) has today warned insurers about climate change liability risks and also the effect that climate change could have on sovereign debt

Europe-based institutional investors and those from around the world expect to increase their emerging market (EM) exposures, both in equity and fixed income, according to latest research

The Association of Mutual Insurers and Insurance Cooperatives in Europe (AMICE) has confirmed Oliver Scholler as a director on its board for a three year term

The IAIS is exploring whether there should be a differentiated capital treatment of certain eligible infrastructure (both equity and debt) as well as strategic equity investments within the ICS

General insurance business in India is expected to contract by 9% in 2020 due to COVID-19, a sharp decline from the 10% growth witnessed in 2019, according to GlobalData

Moody’s outlook for the global reinsurance sector has changed to negative from stable as a
challenging operating environment in the wake of the pandemic weakens profitability, Moody’s Investors Service said in a report

MAPFRE and Abante have joined forces with Macquarie to launch a €200m infrastructure fund

German Investment Funds Association BVI and Insurance Association GDV are making a joint appeal to the EU Commission to regulate US rating agencies more strictly and to monitor them more closely in respect of the pricing of rating data

Eight of Italy’s’ top ten insurers are likely to witness losses due to their heavy reliance to the life insurance sector, GlobalData has said

Modifications to prudential frameworks, in Europe and beyond, should be comprehensively tested to ensure their effectiveness in a variety of stressed market conditions, Insurance Europe has argued

The Hong Kong Insurance Authority (IA) has released provisional statistics of the Hong Kong insurance industry for the first half of 2020, indicating a growth of total gross premiums by 6% to $313.7bn over the corresponding period in 2019

The Prudential Reporting Authority (PRA) has set out its expectations in respect of the reporting of sensitivities of solvency position to various changes in market conditions

The Financial Supervisory Authority of Norway, Finanstilsynet, expects Norwegian banks and insurance companies to comply with the Norwegian authorities’ request to refrain from distributing dividends and repurchasing own shares at least until 1 January 2021

Zurich UK has appointed Tim Bailey to the role of UK CEO, succeeding Tulsi Naidu

Germany is introducing a new concept of ‘Green Twin Bonds’, where a green bond is issues with the same maturity and coupon as a conventional bond

The US life/annuity industry’s net income fell by 66% in the first half of 2020, compared with the same prior-year period, driven predominantly by a 10% decline in premiums and annuity considerations

Swedish insurer Folksam Group has invested SEK 10bn in the real estate credit fund Brunswick Real Estate Capital III (BREC III), its single largest investment ever

The Bermuda Monetary Authority (BMA) has appointed Gerald Gakundi to the position of director, supervision (insurance)

Total US insurer exposure to Other Long-Term Invested Assets was $401.8bn in BACV at year-end 2019, an increase of 10% from $365.2bn at year-end 2018, figures published by the National Association of Insurance Commissioners (NAIC)

Insurance Europe is calling for the European Cental Bank's (ECB) strategy review to include a plan to exit loose monetary policy measures as quickly as possible

US insurance companies reported high-yield bond exposure with a BACV of $227.5bn as of year-end 2019, which was an increase of 4.4% from $217.8bn at year-end 2018, the National Association of Insurance Commissioners (NAIC) has said

Total return reinsurers are significantly underperforming the reinsurers that comprise the Bermuda composite, AM Best has said, despite having the potential to generate significantly higher investment returns than traditional reinsurers

European insurers disagree with the European Commission’s (EC) belief that the “strong capitalisation of the insurance industry means that increasing capital requirements would not have an adverse impact”

Brazil’s largest reinsurer, IRB Brasil Resseguros SA, has concluded a 2.3 billion reais ($420m) capital increase to address liquidity issues, but has not yet fully met regulatory requirements

Björn Storim has been appointed as head of Germany, Switzerland, Austria and Central & Eastern Europe for BNY Mellon

Lloyd's of London is facing calls to ditch insurance in coal and tar sands, as it reopens its underwriting hall today

Ex-Governor of the Bank of England, Mark Carney, has joined Brookfield Asset Management as its head of ESG and impact fund investing

Norweigian life insurer, Storebrand, rated BBB (stable) by S&P, has mandated Danske Bank and Nordea as arrangers for a new senior unsecured bond issue with an expected tenor of up to five years

The International Accounting Standards Board has finalised its response to the ongoing reform of inter-bank offered rates (IBOR) and other interest rate benchmarks by issuing a package of amendments to IFRS Standards

Ageas has concluded an agreement with China Taiping Insurance Holdings (CTIH) to subscribe to a capital increase of its wholly controlled subsidiary Taiping Reinsurance (TPRe) for a total consideration of HKD 3,100m (around €340m)

Aon and Willis Towers Watson shareholders have approved all of the proposals necessary to complete the previously announced combination of Aon and Willis Towers Watson

Mercer has announced the appointment of William Gibbons as principal in its insurance investment solutions business

New capital requirements for Japanese insurers from their financial year starting April 2025 will provide greater clarity over their risks and profitability, Fitch Ratings has said

HSBC Global Asset Management (HSBC GAM) and Pollination Group have entered into a joint venture agreement to establish HSBC Pollination Climate Asset Management – subject to regulatory approval

European institutional investors, including insurance companies, are continuing to diversify their portfolios away from equity exposure, according to research by Mercer

MetLife Investment Management (MIM) originated $6.2bn in private placement debt for the first half of 2020, across nearly 100 transactions. This included $1.7bn of investments originated on behalf of institutional clients

MetLife, Aflac and Principal Financial Group have all backed a US accounting rulemaker plan to give them a year’s extension to comply with major new insurance accounting rules

Storebrand has dumped its investments in Exxon Mobil, Chevron and miner Rio Tinto in protest over their lobbying against the Paris Agreement

Legal & General Assurance Society Limited (Legal & General) has agreed a £275m buy-in transaction with the trustee of the Hitachi UK Pension Scheme

A rising valuation in Bitcoin is not enough to entice some institutional investors into the cryptocurrency market, as many have concerns regarding the infrastructure of this sector, new research has shown

Kent Sullivan has notified Governor Abbott that he will resign as Texas Insurance Commissioner in September to return to the private sector

The High Court has approved the transfer of business from Legal & General to ReAssure

Australia’s life insurance industry is expected to decline by 2.2% in 2020, compared to a growth of 5.1% in its pre-COVID-19 forecasts

Neuberger Berman has appointed Gilles Drukier as head of insurance solutions for the EMEA region effective 3 August 2020

European insurers believe that more “more prominence must be given to adaptation” around climate change

The UK long-income real estate market is now worth around £30bn and continues to grow rapidly, according to a new report, with pension schemes and insurers being the primary investors

Suncorp has broadened its fossil fuels policy to include restrictions on oil and gas production and exploration, making it the first insurer to adopt any policy restricting underwriting on oil & gas

The Japanese life insurance market is a "blueprint" for managing low interest rates, Fitch Ratings has said

Smaller municipal investment projects supporting the green restructuring of Europe “could be bundled in funds” to save costs and to aid smaller insurers which do not have the resources to manage many individual projects, the German Insurance Association (GDV) has said

AIA’s operating profit after tax (OPAT) increased by 5% to $2,933m in H1 2020, reflecting what it described as the “quality and growth of in-force business”

UNIQA’s investment income fell by 29% to €215.1m in H1 2020 due to write-downs on shares and fixed income securities

German insurance company Gothaer is offsetting its remaining CO2 emissions through climate protection projects in countries in the global south

Hong Kong’s Insurance Authority (IA) has launched a six-week public consultation on draft insurance group capital rules to tie in with the implementation of the new supervisory framework for multinational insurance groups tentatively in the first quarter of 2021

The German non-life insurance market is expected to maintain strong capitalisation in 2020 and 2021, Fitch Ratings has said, supported by strong profitability and positive reserves run-off

PFA Asset Management’s head of ESG, Andreas Stang, has joined insurance and pension company Topdanmark

Varma has joined a group of investors calling on pharmaceutical companies to develop a coronavirus vaccine and to work together in the fight against COVID-19

Allianz Benelux (Belgium) and Monument Re have agreed to transfer a closed book of classical life retail insurances together with 4,500 mortgage loans to Monument Assurance Belgium (MAB) and to transfer the related operations within 18 months after regulatory approvals

Corporate bond holdings are posing a risk to insurers’ balance sheets particularly during periods of macroeconomic uncertainty, AM Best has said

The risk exposures of the European Union insurance sector remain generally high compared to April as a result of the COVID-19 outbreak, EIOPA's latest Risk Dashboard has revealed

More than half of institutional investors (55%) believe the majority of their ESG investments will be held in passive products such as exchange traded funds (ETFs) within the next five years, according to new research from Invesco

Legal & General (L&G) has completed a £530m buy-in for the Siemens Benefits Scheme securing the benefits of more than 2,000 UK retirees

Two-hundred and one mergers and acquisitions (M&A) were completed in the global insurance industry in H1 2020, up from 197 in H2 2019, according to Clyde & Co

Insurance supervision in Denmark should be further strengthened by increasing on-site inspection frequency, the IMF has said, as well as completing a solid risk assessment framework, and enhancing the oversight of cross-border business

Bond investment by Chinese insurance funds increased by 16.5% year-on-year (YoY), and long-term equity investment rose by 18.2% YoY, China Banking and Insurance Regulatory Commission (CBIRC) chairman Guo Shuqing has said

Insurance Europe is calling for a phased-in approach to ESG disclosures that allows financial market participants to implement comparable and meaningful reports

Achmea’s investment income from its own risk investment portfolio was €427m in H1 2020 down from €600m in H1 2019

Storebrand Forsikring AS a wholly owned subsidiary of Storebrand ASA, has entered into an agreement with Insr Insurance Group ASA (Insr) to acquire specific insurance portfolios from Insr

Total cash and invested assets of private equity (PE)-owned US insurers increased 7% to $343.5bn at year-end 2019 from $313.9bn at year-end 2018

Talanx Group has made its second investment this year in a high-speed internet project in France, by committing to contribute more than €60m to an international debt financing deal

Norway’s FSA is being urged to step up its risk monitoring and conduct its own stress tests of the country’s insurance sector

Rothesay Asset Management North America (Rothesay Asset Management NA) has promoted Robert Allard to the newly created role of chief investment officer for the Americas, where he will lead the firm’s US investment strategy in addition to his current role as head of Rothesay’s asset management business in the US

The general insurance (GI) market in China is forecast to have a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 4.1% between 2019 and 2023

Zurich’s net investment result on group investments, which includes net investment income, realised net capital gains, and losses and impairments, contributed $2.8bn to the group’s total revenues for the first half year of 2020, down 22% on the prior-year period

Dutch insurer Aegon has reported lower than expected first-half earnings, and has withdrawn
its 2019-2021 financial targets on the basis of the company’s results in the first half of 2020 and in light of the uncertain economic outlook due to the COVID-19 pandemic

Legal & General has completed its eighth transaction with the ICI Pension Fund in May 2020, bringing total liabilities secured to c.£5.8bn

German insurer Talanx Group achieved a consolidated profit of €325m in H1 2020 - only a third less than in the first half of 2019

Admiral Group has reported net investment income for H1 2020 of £32m up from £18.3m in H1 2019

Aggregated capital in the US life insurance sector would decline by $74.3bn (-35.7%) in an adverse scenario, the IMF has said, and the P&C sector would see falls of $149.8bn (-32%)

The International Monetary Fund (IMF) is calling for the implementation of a total balance sheet approach to insurer solvency assessment in the USA

The top ten insurers in Germany are reliant on life insurance, generating 77% of their GWP from life and health products, but may have more diversified books than other European contemporaries

Rothesay Life has insured just under £930m of deferred and pensioner liabilities in the Littlewoods Pensions Scheme through a bulk annuity transaction, which was completed in July 2020

The four major European reinsurers - Munich Re (Insurer Financial Strength (IFS) Rating AA/Stable), Swiss Re (IFS Rating A+/Stable), Hannover Re (IFS Rating AA-/Stable) and SCOR SE (IFS Rating AA-/Stable) - are among the top tier of global reinsurers by business profile, Fitch Ratings has said

Prudential has pledged to sell all of its $5bn Jackson Life operation and has signalled that it will keep its global headquarters in London

German insurer, Alte Leipziger, has signed the Principles for Responsible Investment (PRI)

Total assets of Chinese insurers amounted to RMB 22trn at the end of H1 2020, up by RMB 1.4trn or 6.9% from the beginning of the year, latest figures published by the China Banking and Insurance Regulatory Commission (CBIRC) have shown

AXA is considering selling its Singapore unit in a bid to raise cash

Berkshire Hathaway's second-quarter net earnings attributable to shareholders rose 87% to $26.30bn from last year's $14.07bn, as the value of its investment portfolio increased with the stock market

The Reserve Bank of New Zealand (RBNZ) is publishing an amended Insurer Solvency Return and Guidance Note (v5.3) in force from 1 September 2020 to improve the information provided through projections of solvency

Ageas's six month group net result stood at €791m for 2020, up from €606m in HY 2019 and includes the gain on the FRESH transactions of €332m

Bermuda-based specialty reinsurer Third Point Reinsurance and multi-line re/insurer Sirius International Insurance Group have entered into a definitive agreement for Third Point Re and Sirius Group to combine in a cash and stock transaction valued at $788m

The ABI has appointed Tavaziva Madzinga, CEO, Swiss Re, UK & Ireland (UKI) to its board

Phoenix Group's acquisition of ReAssure Group has brought an additional £7bn of long-term cash generation and has enabled it to increase its 2020 cash generation target range from £800m-£900m to £1.5bn-£1.6bn

Aviva chief executive Amanda Blanc has hinted she could pull the insurer out of most of its international markets as she focuses the group on the UK, Ireland and Canada

MetLife's profit slid to $68m in Q2 2020, down 96% from a year earlier, on sluggish investment income, according to its latest financial results

The Talanx Group is further expanding its sustainable investment strategy with a credit-insured project bond of €250m, financing two Spanish solar projects with 50 MW capacity each

56% of insurers see data calculation as the biggest IFRS 9 challenge, a new survey from Clearwater has revealed

Asia Capital Reinsurance Group (ACR), a Singapore-headquartered reinsurance business, has implemented Clearwater for automated investment investment data aggregation, investment accounting and investment reporting

One hundred and forty environmental, indigenous and activist groups, whose signatories represent more than 24 million members, are urging insurers including Lloyd’s of London to drop their coverage of the Trans Mountain tar sands pipeline in an open letter

Allianz has announced a 19% Y-O-Y fall in operating profit for Q2 2020 to €2.6bn

Legal & General has reported a half-year operating profit of £1.13bn, slightly down on the £1.154m posted a year ago

Hastings has agreed to be bought by Finland’s Sampo and South Africa’s Rand Merchant Investment (RMI) in a cash deal valuing it at £1.66bn ($2.2bn)

The number of US life/annuity (L/A) companies considering non-interest-sensitive investment strategies in the last 10 years is more than double those deemed interest-sensitive, AM Best has said

Direct Line has seen its investment return fall by 45.4% between H1 2019 and H1 2020

Luxembourg’s insurance market saw premiums fall by 19.54% during Q2 2020 compared to the same period of the previous fiscal year

Insurance Europe has welcomed the European Commission’s (EC) objectives set out in its roadmap for the Capital Markets Union (CMU) action plan, but highlighted that priorities should remain around addressing regulatory barriers to long-term and sustainable investment

European insurers are calling for free access to credit ratings for internal and regulatory purposes

Shareholders in Cattolica Assicurazioni have approved its conversion into a joint-stock company

AIG’s net adjusted investment income has dropped $537m from a year ago to $3.2bn.

According to its latest financial results, the decrease was as a result of $276m in private-equity losses compared with $238m in private-equity income a year ago

Argo Group’s net investment income decreased 96.5% to $1.5m in Q2 2020, from $42.8m in Q2 2019

Covéa is to invest a total of €1.5bn with Exor and in special purpose reinsurance vehicles managed by PartnerRe

The yield to maturity on Hiscox’s fixed income portfolio is now at its lowest ever point at less than 1%, thus serving to reduce future expected returns

CNP Assurances saw its dividends received in its French arm fall by €283m in H1 2020, causing a €60m reduction in revenue from own-funds portfolios, and requiring €17m (net of hedging) to be set aside in the guaranteed yield reserve

The National Bank of Belgium is urging Belgian credit institutions and (re)insurers to suspend their dividend payments until at least 1 January 2021

Asset concentration risk constrains the ratings of Italian insurers, Fitch Ratings has said, however, this risk is partly offset by strong capitalisation, which is typically a credit strength for rated Italian insurers

The European Insurance and Occupational Pensions Authority (EIOPA) has launched its first Single Rulebook

Legal & General has agreed a £100m bulk annuity transaction with the Countrywide Farmers Retirement Benefits Scheme, securing the benefits of 360 deferred members and 712 retirees

Profitability of the investment portfolio is the key risk and challenge in terms of materiality for insurers, EIOPA has said.

The authority conducted a qualitative questionnaire among national competent authorities (NCAs) in order to assess the materiality of risks stemming from the COVID-19 shock to the financial stability of the insurance sector, and found that the solvency position, exposure to banks, underwriting profitability, concentration to domestic sovereign and cyber risk are the other main risks.

Chubb has reported a net loss of $331m in Q2 2020, compared with net income of more than $1.1bn in the same period last year, as net catastrophe losses reached $1.51bn due to COVID-19

AXIS Capital’s net investment income fell from $93m in Q1 2020 to $45m in Q2 2020, primarily as a result of negative returns from credit and real estate funds

The Australian Prudential Regulation Authority (APRA) has updated its capital management guidance for banks and insurers, in particular easing restrictions around paying dividends as institutions continue to manage the disruption caused by COVID-19

The surplus for the private US P&C insurance industry dropped by $75.9bn in the first quarter of 2020—its largest-ever quarterly decline—as the stock market suffered a major downturn, according to Verisk and the American Property Casualty Insurance Association (APCIA)

The Association of British Insurers (ABI) has appointed Charlotte Clark as director of regulation, replacing Hugh Savill who is retiring at the end of the year

Hong Kong’s HKD552bn ($66bn) insurance industry is set to grow by just 1.46% in 2020, compared to 6.3% in 2019, due to the economic impact of COVID-19 outbreak

Insurance and reinsurance undertakings should now be in a condition to comply with the deadlines set out in the Solvency II framework, EIOPA has said

Fifty-eight per cent of insurers are unlikely to make external manager terminations based on disappointing 2020 performance, latest data has revealed

MAPFRE’s earnings at the end of June was €271m, 27.7% lower than the result obtained between January and June of the previous year due to the impact of COVID-19

A group of financial sector associations – including Insurance Europe – has written to the European Commission (EC) to warn against proposals to introduce a new definition of “sustainability preferences” across the delegated acts of MIFID II, the Insurance Distribution Directive (IDD) and Solvency II

Thailand's non-life insurance market is expected to contract by 5.6% in 2020, according to GlobalData, as a result of the "severe impact of COVID-19"

French life insurers recorded net inflows of -€0.7bn in June 2020

Beazley achieved strong growth of 12% in H1 2020 with premiums increasing to $1,663.9m (2019: $1,483.6m)

Fifty-one per cent (2,269) of the total number of US insurers (4,482) filing statements with the NAIC reported outsourcing investment management at year-end 2019

China’s banking and insurance regulator, CBIRC, is raising the equity investment cap for insurers to 45%, in an effort to bring more long-term funds into the capital market

SCOR’s total investments reached €28.8bn in H1 2020, up 4.6% on H1 2019 (€27.5bn)

Zurich, the lead insurer for Canada’s controversial Trans Mountain tar sands pipeline, has decided not to renew cover for the project

Fifteen per cent of insurers in the Americas have increased their allocations to municipal bonds and 25% increased allocations to investment grade (IG) credit, as COVID-19 continues to influence investment strategies and asset class allocations

WR Berkeley has taken a defensive position to enhance its liquidity by investing in high-quality shorter-term assets, including cash and cash equivalents

The Insurance and Reinsurance Stakeholder Group (IRSG) has elected Michaela Koller (Insurance Europe) as chair and Paul Fox (Finance Watch) as vice chair

Skandia’s life insurance arm saw a drop in AUM from SEK 508bn to SEK 492bn in H1 2020

The European Insurance and Occupational Pensions Authority (EIOPA) has published a supervisory statement on the Solvency II recognition of schemes based on reinsurance with regard to COVID-19 and credit insurance

The largest share of these losses is attributable to cover for major events, with a lower impact reported in life and health business as well as other lines of property-casualty insurance, including business interruption

The National Association of Insurance Commissioner’s (NAIC) executive committee has created a new task force focused on climate and resiliency

Jackson National Life Insurance Company has announced the completion of a $500m equity investment from Athene, in return for a 9.9% voting interest corresponding to a 11.1% economic interest in Jackson

ETF usage among insurers in Europe has increased by 13% since 2019

The European insurance industry is again calling for an increase in the supply of long-term sustainable assets to meet the needs of institutional investors, and has emphasised the need for carbon pricing to reduce emissions and to make green projects more financeable

Insurers’ total investments have increased (per quarter) on average by 1.15% while fixed income assets have increased on average by 0.91% in the last 15 quarters (last observation Q4 2019), according to latest figures published by EIOPA

The European Insurance and Occupational Pensions Authority (EIOPA) has highlighted the need for ensuring high-quality and user-friendly sustainability data as part of its response to the EC's consultation on a renewed sustainable finance strategy

EIOPA has calculated the ultimate forward rate (UFR) for 2021 in accordance with the methodology to derive the UFR

Nippon Life has begun impact investing, with a $20m investment in a private equity fund which seeks to generate competitive financial returns at the same time as creating and measuring environmental and societal impact while contributing to the achievement of the United Nations’ SDGs

US insurers increased their private equity holdings by 10% YoY to $81bn in 2019, AM Best has said

France’s financial regualtor L’Autorité de contrôle prudentiel et de résolution (ACPR) is urging the country’s largest insurers to split the roles of chairman and chief executive in order to improve governance and therefore reduce risks

The German Insurance Assocation (GDV) has questioned an investigation by the Federation of Insured Persons (BdV) into the position of German life insurers, as “not adequately justified” and “non-transparent”

Former CEO of Monte dei Paschi di Siena, Marco Morelli, has been appointed executive chairman of AXA IM and a member of AXA’s management committee

AM Best has assigned a negative market segment outlook to Chile’s insurance industry, citing contractions of premium volume, limited financial flexibility and regulatory changes that have diminished the attractiveness and profitability of the health and annuity segments, all of which are being exacerbated by the COVID-19 pandemic

Storebrand has recorded a group profit of NOK 808m in Q2 2020, a 40% growth YOY, its latest results have shown

MetLife has become the first US life insurer to adopt a policy restricting investments in coal, however campaigners from Insure Our Future argue the policy goes nowhere near far enough

Prolonged lockdown scenarios, a severe second wave of COVID-19, or fiscal policies that prove ineffective in insulating economies could lead to a permanent loss of production and additional financial market dislocations which could in turn weaken insurers’ asset portfolios and capital positions more severely than seen to date

Chinese insurance institutions should increase their investment in medium and long-term corporate bonds to help accelrate economic recovery folllowing COVID-19, the China Banking and Insurance Regulatory Commission (CBIRC) has said

NN Group and Aegon have both seen their Solvency II (SII) ratios negatively impacted as a result of the Dutch regulator’s (DNB) decision to revise the required approach to calculating the SII ratio for an insurance-led Financial Conglomerate (FICO)

Insurance supervisors should “strengthen their efforts” in facilitating insurers to transition away from LIBOR, the International Association of Insurance Supervisors (IAIS) has said

The ABI has confirmed both its board chair Jon Dye, chief executive, Allianz Insurance, and deputy chair Julian Adams, director, public policy and regulation, M&G have agreed to extend their current roles to serve the full two year term, ending summer 2021

Germany’s non-life insurance sector has had its outlook maintained at stable by AM Best, partly due to the industry’s conservative investment portfolios limiting exposure to COVID-19-driven financial market volatility

Global life insurance premiums are expected to contract by 6% in 2020 and non-life premiums by 0.1% due to the COVID-19 pandemic, Swiss Re has said, before volumes recover to pre-COVID-19 crisis levels in 2021

Scandinavian insurance company Tryg has seen its SCR fall by approximately DKK 400m in Q2 driven by the FSA approval of the new partial internal model

Prudential Retirement, part of Prudential Financial, closed $1.7bn in new longevity reinsurance transactions during the first half of the year

Total deposits among life and non-life Italian insurers and EEA insurance undertakings operating in Italy amounted to €149.9bn in 2019, an increase of 3.4% compared to 2018, Italy’s Institute for Insurance Supervision, IVASS, has said

AXA XL has appointed Sean McGovern as CEO UK & Lloyd’s market subject to regulatory approval

The European insurance industry supports the EC’s sustainability objectives and generally welcomes the amendments to integrate sustainability into insurers’ prudential framework and sales processes, Insurance Europe has said

France’s top ten insurers largely depend on the life insurance sector for their premiums, generating 84% of their business from this area, according to GlobalData, leaving them exposed to high claims as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic

CNP Assurances has adopted a definitive plan to exit thermal coal in its investment portfolio by 2030 in the EU and OECD countries, and by 2040 in the rest of the world

The matching adjustment (MA) has functioned as intended thus far throughout the COVID-19 crisis, the PRA has said, but areas remain where clarifications are needed to ensure consistency in firms’ interpretation of the regulator’s policy

Improvements to Solvency II are needed if investment is to be encouraged, particularly in SMEs, Insurance Europe has said

Aviva has announced the appointment of Amanda Blanc as chief executive officer with immediate effect

US insurers’ cash and invested assets reached $6.99trn at year-end 2019, an increase of 6.9% to year-end 2018

French insurers have made a commitment to the public authorities to support the country’s economy affected by the health crisis and have decided to set up a €1.5bn investment programme with Caisse des Dépôts et Consignations

Lloyds Banking Group general insurance and protection director Craig Thornton has been appointed as the new chair of the ABI’s General Insurance Council (GIC)

The European Commission (EC) has launched a consultation on the review of the EU’s prudential rules for insurance and reinsurance companies (the so-called ‘Solvency II Directive’) with the aim of publishing reforms in summer 2021

The European Insurance and Occupational Pensions Authority (EIOPA), together with the Financial Supervisory Authority of Romania (ASF), have announced the start of the balance sheet review of the Romanian insurance sector in the second semester of 2020

PRA-regulated firms should have fully embedded their approaches to managing climate-related financial risks by the end of 2021, deputy governor for prudential regulation and CEO of the PRA Sam Woods has said

MAPFRE AM, the asset management arm of Spain's largest insurance group, and Global Social Impact Investments SGIIC (GSI) are joining forces to launch the Global Social Impact Fund (GSIF)

Willis Towers Watson’s Willis Pension Scheme has entered a longevity swap deal with Munich Re to manage longevity risk in relation to £1bn of pensioner liabilities

CNP Assurances has successfully placed €750m worth of notes due 30 June 2051 and paying interest at 2.5% until 30 June 2031. The notes qualify as Tier 2 capital under Solvency II

An “urgent need for clarity” is needed on how EIOPA’s Solvency II (SII) risk-free rates (RFR) will be amended to reflect the transition away from IBOR rates, Insurance Europe has said

Rothesay Life has insured the pensioner liabilities of IPC Media Pension Scheme through a £290m pensioner buy-in, which was completed in May 2020

Seventy-eight per cent of insurers are confident their asset managers can navigate the current financial crisis caused by COVID-19, according to a survey published by State Street Corporation

Generali is to issue a green bond of up to €600m ($674.6m) and buy back some notes in a move that will lower interest expenses on its debt

US insurance companies for a fourth-straight year increased their private equity holdings—by nearly 10% in 2019 to $81.3bn, according to AM Best

The Hartford has appointed Amy Stepnowski to the position of chief investment officer of and president of Hartford Investment Management Company (HIMCO) effective 1 August

Gefion Insurance is entering liquidation following the Danish Financial Supervisory Aiuthority’s (DFSA) refusal to grant it an extension of three months of recovery period concerning its solvency capital requirement (SCR)

Natixis and La Banque Postale have signed an agreement to combine their fixed-income and insurance-related asset management businesses, creating a European leader with over €415bn in assets under management for large institutional clients.

UK pension superfunds could encroach on life insurers' bulk purchase annuity (BPA) market, Fitch Ratings has said

Insurer Talanx has dropped support for Canada’s controversial Trans Mountain pipeline while Munich Re’s support is in doubt after it unveiled a new tar sands policy earlier this year, emails to Canadian NGO Stand.earth have revealed

(Re)insurance market dynamics including increased pricing, years of accumulating catastrophic losses, investment market losses and the significant losses expected from the fallout of the coronavirus pandemic have led to reinsurers’ push for further price increases, Fitch Ratings has said

The Norwegian Financial Supervisory Authority (NFSA) has notified Insr Insurance Group ASA that it is considering making a decision to revoke the company's license to conduct non-life insurance business

Taiwan’s general insurance industry is expected to contract by 1.7% in 2020 for the first time since the global financial crisis of 2008-2009, according to GlobalData

High common stock leverage among each of Japan’s major non-life insurers brings systematic equity price risk into greater consideration, given the current COVID-19-driven stock market volatility, according to an AM Best special report

US life/annuity (L/A) insurance companies continued to increase their exposures to commercial mortgage loans in 2019 and now hold more than $522bn, up significantly from $382bn in 2015, according to a new AM Best special report

NN Group has recorded an Solvency II ratio of around 227% at the end of May 2020 and its “conservative asset mix heavily geared to high quality government bonds” means it has low sensitivity to interest rate and credit spread risks

The Solvency II (SII) regime is “unnecessarily conservative” and a “net reduction in aggregate capital levels is justified”, Insurance Europe has said in a submission to the EC, setting out its views on the holistic impact assessment exercise carried out by EIOPA between March and June 2020 to inform its technical advice on the 2020 review of the SII regulatory framework

Lemonade has commenced the initial public offering of its common stock

Generali Group has agreed to buy a 24.4% stake in Cattolica Assicurazioni in a move that will boost Cattolica’s capital position amid the coronavirus crisis, the two firms announced today

The International Accounting Standards Board (IASB) has today issued amendments to IFRS 17 Insurance Contracts aimed at helping companies implement the standard and making it easier for them to explain their financial performance.

The UK government is planning to bring forward a review of certain features of Solvency II (SII) to ensure that it is “properly tailored to take account of the structural features of the UK insurance sector” and expects to publish a call for evidence in Autumn 2020

Macquarie Infrastructure Debt Investment Solutions (MIDIS) has raised £2.7bn in commitments from predominantly UK corporate pension schemes, local authority pension schemes and insurance companies in the latest round of fundraising for its UK infrastructure debt strategy

The European Insurance and Occupational Pensions Authority (EIOPA) has published its second Discussion Paper on Methodological Principles of Insurance Stress Testing

Kommunal Landspensjonskasse (KLP) has sold its wholly-owned pensions subsidiary, KLP Bedriftspensjon AS, to DNB Livforsikring AS, the bank’s life insurance arm for an undisclosed amount

Eighty per cent of institutional investors in Germany now use sustainable strategies in their investment activities – the highest level ever recorded, a survey published by Union Investment has shown

Phoenix Group has appointed Michael Eakins from ReAssure into the newly created role of chief investment officer, subject to regulatory approval and completion of the ReAssure acquisition

Travelers grew gross written premiums in its global renewable energy practice by nearly 30% year over year, its 2019 Sustainability Report has shown

MetLife has become the first US-based life insurer to join the United Nations Global Compact, the world’s largest corporate sustainability initiative

Worldwide regulated open-ended fund assets decreased by 10.8 per cent to €47.1trn in the first quarter (Q1) of 2020, the European Fund and Asset Management Association (EFAMA) has revealed

Spanish insurance company MAPFRE has announced an investment of €250m in private equity through a new co-investment fund for institutional investors

Global insurers are still accessing debt capital markets at favourable coupon rates, despite higher credit spreads triggered by the COVID-19-induced recession, and around $140bn (or 20% of total outstanding debt) is coming for call or maturity by 31 December 2021, S&P Global Ratings (S&P) has said.

Former executive director and chief financial officer of RSA Ireland Insurance DAC (RSAII), Rory O'Connor has been disqualified for 8 years 4 months and fined €70,000 by the Central Bank of Ireland for his admitted participation in a breach of financial services law by RSAII

The Securities and Exchange Commission has charged international insurance company AmTrust Financial Services and its former CFO Ronald E. Pipoly Jr. with failing to disclose material facts about how the company estimated its insurance losses and reserves. They have agreed to pay a combined $10.5m to settle the SEC’s charges

US insurance companies will have to boost the capital held against their CLO holdings to $384m from $145m if rating agencies go ahead with a one-notch cut, UBS has said

Metropolitan Tower Life Insurance Company, a subsidiary of MetLife, has completed its first UK longevity reinsurance transaction with PIC

Fidelis has announced the closing of its offering of $300m aggregate principal amount of 4.875% senior notes due 2030

Forty-six per cent of insurance firms have cited climate change as a key risk, significantly up from 18% last year, a new LCP report has revealed

Prudential has reached agreement with Athene, a leading retirement services company, for its subsidiary Athene Life Re to invest $500m in Prudential’s US business in return for an 11.1% economic interest for which the voting interest is 9.9%

The life insurance industry in Japan is expected to contract by 1% in 2020, as compared to 2% growth registered in 2019, according to GlobalData

Italian insurers lost 25 points from their solvency ratios in Q1, Italy’s insurance watchdog IVASS has said

The UK insurance sector was robust to downside stresses caused by the COVID-19 pandemic during April, the PRA has said, with the highest uncertainty centred on certain general insurers’ liabilities

Just a quarter of leading insurance companies have committed to a 1.5°C global warming target according to Unfriend Coal research

Insurers and other pension risk transfer (PRT) providers are "ready" to invest up to £190bn of pension money into UK infrastructure over the next decade, analysis by Legal & General (L&G) has founD

The US life/annuity (L/A) insurance industry saw pre-tax operating income rise by 34% in 2019 to $63.4bn, driven by a decline in transaction-driven volatility compared with previous years and favourable equity markets for the year, according to a new AM Best report

Schroders has announced the promotion of Andy Howard to the position of global head of sustainable investment, taking on the leadership of the sustainable investment team

Fitch Ratings took negative rating actions on 34% of rated EMEA insurance groups (including reinsurers) as a result of the portfolio review it carried out between 19 March and 2 June 2020 in light of the coronavirus pandemic

Legal & General (L&G) is planning to issue restricted tier 1 debt in order to "capitalise on favourable market conditions", it stated today

India’s general insurance industry is set to grow by 4.0% in 2020, compared to the 10% in 2019, according to GlobalData, a leading data and analytics company

Specialist global insurer Hiscox has announced the appointment of Christian Nielsen as chief financial officer (CFO) for Hiscox London Market and Hiscox Syndicates Limited (HSL)

US life insurers are more vulnerable to an economic downturn compared to their UK counterparts, due to the fact they have almost three quarters of their investments in corporate bonds, GlobalData has said

Institutional investor data and analysis provider CAMRADATA has launched a new feature within its CAMRADATA Live research platform to enable investors to easily review an asset manager’s ESG capabilities and compare asset managers on a like-for-like basis

MAPFRE AM the asset management arm of Spain's largest insurance company has announced that its range of ESG funds has so far brought in a total of €62m this year, despite extreme volatility in the markets caused by the global pandemic

The Financial Reporting Council (FRC) has issued a final decision notice under the audit enforcement procedure and imposed non-financial sanctions on KPMG  in relation to the statutory audits of the financial statements of Foresight 4 VCT plc (“the Company”) for the 2012/2013, 2013/2014 and 2014/2015 financial years

LV= is exploring a sale of its life insurance and pensions units, examining whether it is in the best interests of its 1.3 million member customers

The Financial Accounting Standards Board (FASB) is to issue a proposed Accounting Standards Update (ASU) granting US insurance companies that issue long-duration contracts, such as life insurance and annuities, an additional year to implement its standard that improves financial reporting

Four global insurance companies – Liberty Mutual, HDI Global, XL Australia and Aspen Re – are underwriting work on Adani's Carmichael coal project, according to leaked information from an employee of Adani’s insurance broker Marsh & McLennan

The long-term nature of insurance business should be better reflected in the prudential framework, a report by the High Level Forum (HLF) on capital markets union has said

Fidelis has executed agreements to raise a further $500m of equity capital from existing investor relationships

Cryptoasset insurance company Evertas has received its licence from the Bermuda Monetary Authority to start operating from the jurisdiction

A group of financial services trade associations – including Insurance Europe – has called for the creation of a centralised public register for Environmental, Social and Governance (ESG) data in the EU

Zurich has announced the successful placement of €750m of dated subordinated notes

The monitoring of liquidity risks in the insurance sector needs to be improved, the European Systemic Risk Board (ESRB) has said, and the Pillar 2 provisions in the Solvency II regulatory regime should be enhanced in the medium term to enable supervisors to require (re)insurers with a vulnerable liquidity profile to hold a liquidity buffer

A total of 109 investors, representing €11.9trn in assets under management or advice, have written to European leaders highlighting the need to ensure the economic response to the COVID-19 pandemic delivers a sustainable recovery

The investment management industry is split over the mood of institutional investors following the market turmoil caused by the pandemic, a report by Cerulli has found

The US life/annuity (L/A) industry posted a $23.1bn net income loss in the first quarter of 2020, driven mainly by a 51% increase in expenses over the same prior-year period

Finnish mutual pension insurance company Varma is joining a global real estate and construction industry initiative that advocates for carbon-neutral buildings

ERGO Group has announced the signing of a shareholder’s agreement and capital increase agreement to take a 24.9% stake in Taishan Property & Casualty Insurance (Taishan Insurance), a Shandong-based nationwide P&C insurer in China

Bank-owned French insurance businesses deliver higher profitability than other insurers and therefore entered the COVID-19 crisis with solid Solvency II capital ratios, which will enable them to easily absorb the impact from falling asset prices, Moody’s has said

US insurance companies with significant exposures to municipal bond markets are set to feel the negative market effects stemming from COVID-19, and therefore selecting appropriate exposures will be “critical” to insurers’ ability to manage through this tumultuous cycle, AM Best has said

Cattolica Assicurazioni has announced the closing of the acquisition of 40% of Cattolica Life from Banca Popolare di Vicenza in compulsory administrative liquidation and the simultaneous sale of 100% of the same company to the Monument Re reinsurance group

The US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) has announced settled charges against Bermuda-based insurance company Argo Group International Holdings for failing to fully disclose perquisites and benefits provided to its former chief executive officer, Mark E. Watson III 

German insurer Allianz is in talks with Chinese regulators to obtain a licence to be able to offer broad asset management services in the country

French mutual insurance company MACIF is strengthening its commitments to end its exposure to thermal coal worldwide from 2030

A round-up of why BMO Global Asset Management took home the award at this year's Asset Management Awards

Voya Investment Management (Voya IM), the asset management business of US insurance company Voya Financial has announced it has been selected by Assurant to manage a $6bn tranche of Assurant’s general account

Both corporates and the financial services industry have jumped ahead of the government in the development of strategies and solutions to climate change, UN Special Envoy for Climate Action and Finance, Mark Carney, has told delegates in his keynote address at PIMFA’s inaugural Virtual Fest today

French insurer AXA plans to cut its dividend by 50% from €1.43 per share to €0.73 per share in order to preserve cash during the COVID-19 pandemic

AM Best has assigned a negative market segment outlook to the Spanish life insurance market

The Carlyle Group and T&D Holdings have completed their acquisition of a 76.6% interest in Fortitude Group Holdings, whose group companies include Fortitude Re, from American International Group

After more than 14 years as CFO, Immo Querner is to leave the boards of management of Talanx AG and HDI V.a.G. on the best of terms and by mutual agreement effective 31 August 2020

Italian insurer Cattolica Assicurazioni has been asked by Italy’s insurance regulator IVASS to strengthen its capital by €500m and to draw up a plan to boost its solvency and liquidity position

A number of measures contained in Solvency II (SII) have “effectively mitigated” the pro-cyclical effects caused by the disruption to financial markets from COVID-19, and the insurance industry as a whole has responded “extremely well” to the operational challenges that have arisen from the pandemic, Bank of England executive director of insurance supervision Charlotte Gerken has said