Contents

Chapter 01 - THE WORLD’S INSURANCE MARKETS AND THE LEADING PLAYERS

Chapter 02 - THE REINSURANCE INDUSTRY

Chapter 03 - THE MAIN DRIVERS ACTING ON THE INSURANCE AND REINSURANCE SECTORS

Chapter 04 - REGULATION OF THE INSURANCE AND REINSURANCE SETORS WORLDWIDE

Chapter 05 - THE RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN BANKS AND INSURANCE COMPANIES

Chapter 06 - INVESTMENT STRATEGIES ADOPTED BY (RE)INSURERS

Chapter 01

THE WORLD’S INSURANCE MARKETS AND THE LEADING PLAYERS

Global size of the insurance and reinsurance markets
  • Product demand

Global performance of the insurance sector

The life insurance market

  • Pensions
  • Profitability

The property and casualty market

New growth markets

  • Growth hotspots

The world’s leading insurance and reinsurance companies – key facts, strategy and financial performance

The major insurance companies

Insurance broking companies

Investment holdings by the UK insurance industry

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Chapter 02

THE REINSURANCE INDUSTRY

What is reinsurance?

Reinsurance in practice

The evolution of the global reinsurance market

Future opportunities and challenges faced by the reinsurance industry

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Chapter 03

THE MAIN DRIVERS ACTING ON THE INSURANCE AND REINSURANCE SECTORS

The evolution of the insurance-linked securitisation market as a means of tapping international
capital

Key drivers behind the rise of the ILS market

Regulatory requirements surrounding capital adequacy

Greater shareholder activism

Opportunities to monetise embedded value

Hedging specific risks

Securitisation as a means of addressing excess mortality risks

ILS – a rapidly growing marketplace

  • Development of the market
  • Growth in securitisation
  • Securitising Property & Casualty risks
  • Cat bonds
  • Why invest in cat bonds?

The Sharpe Ratio

  • Cat swaps
  • Industry loss warranties
  • Who buys ILWs?

Contingent capital

Sidecars

  • The attraction of sidecars to sponsors and investors
  • Regulation of the industry in the US
  • The influence of hedge funds on sidecars

The growth in the ILS market – implications and repercussions for international capital markets
Securitisation – key points

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Chapter 04

REGULATION OF THE INSURANCE AND REINSURANCE SETORS WORLDWIDE

Introduction

The Group of Thirty (G30) report

  • G30 recommendations and subsequent Initiatives

Regulation of the insurance industry in the US

  • Regulatory reform in the US
  • Recent developments

Regulation of the insurance industry within the EU

  • Solvency ll
  • New UK requirements
  • Industry prospects
  • The Reinsurance Directive
  • Implications of implementation
  • Reform issues
  • Structural guidelines
  • The Insurance Mediation Directive

Regulation of the insurance industry in Switzerland

Regulation of the insurance industry in Bermuda

  • Regulatory advantages
  • Relocation boom

Key implications surrounding the changing face of regulation

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Chapter 05

THE RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN BANKS AND INSURANCE COMPANIES

Introduction

Latest developments in the ILS market

Securitised insurance risks

  • Types and volume of securitisation
  • The emergence of CDOs
  • Impact of the credit crunch and sub-prime crisis in 2007
  • Climate change and its impact on the ILS market
  • New trading opportunities for ILS
  • Prospects for ILS

The credit transfer markets

M&A in the (re)insurance sector

  • Investment from West to East and East to West
  • Interest from Bermuda
  • M&A in insurance broking

Monoline bond insurance – a market in turmoil

  • Background

Ratings pressure

  • The impact of monolines’ plummeting credit ratings on the banking sector
  • Rescue plan and opportunities to profit

 

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Chapter 06

INVESTMENT STRATEGIES ADOPTED BY (RE)INSURERS

Introduction

  • Product options

Investment objectives

The insurance sector’s role in the fund management industry

Recent trends

  • Fund management in the UK
  • The switch to more sophisticated structured instruments
  • An appetite for innovation

Five case studies

  • Aviva
  • Legal & General
  • Pearl
  • Standard Life
  • Swiss Re

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Tables & Figures

T1.1: Largest national insurance markets, 1996, 2006 (US$bn, %)
T1.2: Changes in UK pension arrangements, 2002–07 (%)
T1.3: The world’s largest life insurance companies, 2007 (US$bn)
T1.4: The world’s largest P&C insurance companies, 2007 (US$bn)
T1.5: Europe’s top 10 insurance companies – financial performance, 2001–06 (€m, %)
T1.6: Leading European insurance companies, 2007
T1.7: The world’s largest insurance brokers and risk management consultants, 2007 (US$m)
T2.1: Top 40 global reinsurer groups, 2005, 2006 (US$m, %)
T3.1: Characteristics of P&C securitisation
T3.2: Reinsurers’ KRW losses as a % of shareholders’ equity
T3.3: Lead managers advising on cat bonds, H1 2007 (US$m)
T3.4: The 12 largest sidecars established in Bermuda following Hurricane Katrina
T4.1: Membership of the G30 study on Reinsurance & International Financial Markets
T5.1: Lead managers advising on cat bonds, H1 2007 (US$m)
T5.2: Non-life risk securitisations, 2007
T5.3: Types of derivative transactions entered into by reinsurance entities reporting to the IAIS (US$m)
T5.4: Reinsurance companies’ participation in CDS and CDOs, 2005–06 (US$m)
T5.5: CDS held by the worldwide insurance sector, end-June 2006 (US$, %)
T6.1: Insurance company investments per category, by country, 2005 (€m)
T6.2: Total investments of insurance companies, by country, 2005–06 (€m, %)
T6.3: Life investments of insurance companies, by country, 2005–06 (€m, %)
T6.4: Non-life investments of insurance companies, by country, 2005–06 (€m, %)
T6.5: UK long-term insurance companies worldwide net premium income, 2006 (£m)
T6.6: Aggregate numbers and ownership of insurance companies authorised in the UK
T6.7: Top 20 European insurance groups’ investments, 2004–05 (€000, %)
F1.1: Life and non-life insurance – real premium growth, 1980–2006 (%)
F1.2: Insurance density and penetration, by country, 2006 (US$, %)
F1.3: Insurance companies’ equity holdings and performance, 1990–2006
F1.4: Insurance companies’ invested assets under management, 2006 (US$bn)
F1.5: Invested funds by asset class, 2006
F1.6: Insurers’ investments by category, 2005 (%)
F3.1: ILS business models
F3.2: ILS issuance, 1999–H12007 (US$m)
F3.3: ILS projected growth, 1997–2016 (US$m)
F3.4: Sidecar structure
F5.1: Natural catastrophes, economic losses and insured losses, 1950–2006 (US$bn)
F5.2: CDS amounts outstanding, H2 2004– H2 2006 (US$trn)
F6.1: Insurance companies’ invested assets under management, 2006 (US$bn)
F6.2: Insurance company investments per category, 1999, 2005 (%)
F6.3: Share of life and non-life investments, by country, 2006 (%)
F6.4: Insurance company investments across the EU25, 1999–2005 (€m)
F6.5: UK insurance industry investment funds, 1997–2006 (£bn)

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PLEASE NOTE: THESE CONTENTS WERE CORRECT AT TIME OF GOING TO PRINT, BUT MAY BE SUBJECT TO CHANGE