Chancellor Angela Merkel rebuffed pressure on Thursday for Germany, Europe’s most powerful economy, to underwrite debt or guarantee bank deposits in the euro zone, as Spain’s soaring borrowing costs raised new alarm. Spain’s 10-year bond yield hit a euro lifetime …
Swiss Re’s Chief Economist, Kurt Karl, has predicted that the decision by the Federal Reserve to maintain the target fed funds rate at zero to 25 basis points would help calm some of the turmoil in the global financial markets. …
The low interest-rate environment and poor investment income are pushing the need for more stringent underwriting for carriers, according to a panel of experts at a recent industry forum. Property/casualty insurers get part of their revenues from the interest generated …
Swiss Re presented its latest analysis of the global economic outlook and its potential impact on the insurance industry at an economic forum in London yesterday, December 1. Chief Economist Kurt Karl began the discussion with an admonition that the …
Nationwide Mutual reported a third-quarter loss Friday, as the property insurer said it was hurt by investment losses and continuing high levels of claims from natural disasters. Privately held Nationwide, one of the largest insurers in the country, said it …
A bulletin from Munich Re names the “sovereign debt crisis in Europe and the USA, a sustained phase of low interest rates and heavy natural catastrophe burdens,” as well as general uncertainty in the re/insurance markets as posing “significant challenges …
Generally speaking the reinsurance industry is in good shape, certainly better than it was in 2008 and 2009, when even mighty Swiss Re needed a bailout from Berkshire Hathaway. A combination of improved models and a greater understanding as to …
Insurers do not expect interest rates to rise materially in the next year or so, leading them to look for alternatives to improve returns and manage risk, the head of the world’s largest asset manager for insurance companies said Tuesday. …
