The European Union needs a common pension product because existing long-term savings offerings are too complex and costly, the region’s industry regulator said. “There are too many products and people don’t really understand them,” Gabriel Bernardino, chairman of EIOPA, the …
Canada’s financial services regulator released new draft capital requirements for federally regulated mortgage insurers to better reflect growing risks in the country’s housing markets. The Office of the Superintendent of Financial Institutions said Friday the new requirements, which will come …
Cheap money could have unknown consequences for Europe, according to the chief executive officer of Gjensidige Forsikring ASA, Norway’s largest listed insurer. “It’s a sign of sickness for the economies in Europe when rates are this low,” Helge Leiro Baastad, …
Assicurazioni Generali SpA, Italy’s biggest insurer, said second-quarter profit fell 6 percent as low interest rates and volatile equity markets hurt investment gains. Net income declined to 590 million euros ($654 million) from 626 million euros a year earlier, the …
Swiss Re AG, the world’s biggest reinsurer, said profit fell in the second-quarter as the company paid more for catastrophe claims including earthquakes in Japan and forest fires in Canada. Net income declined to $637 million from $820 million a …
Central bankers globally need to realize the risks that extreme monetary policies will backfire, according to Voya Financial Inc.’s Karyn Cavanaugh. “Negative rates are turning out to be a dirt sandwich, especially for Japan,” Cavanaugh, who works as senior market …
European insurers, whose profits are being eroded by Mario Draghi’s* quantitative easing program, face a stress test headache that risks requiring them to set aside more capital, further hurting their ability to make money. The timing of the regulator’s “stress …
Record low gilt yields following Britain’s vote to leave the European Union are deepening UK pension deficits, worsening a headache for domestic companies which may be called upon to help fill the gap. Several years of ultra-low British interest rates …
Despite a challenging business environment and global trade slowdown in 2015, global direct premiums written grew by 3.8 percent in real terms, up from 3.5 percent in 2014, according to Swiss Re’s latest sigma report. However, in nominal US dollar …
Investors will consider hoarding cash in vaults as government bond yields fall deeper into negative territory following the U.K.’s vote to leave the European Union, according to Talanx AG, Germany’s third-biggest insurer. “Storing physical cash as an alternative to paying …
