The International Association of Insurance Supervisors recently released a policy paper entitled Reinsurance and Financial Stability which addresses specific issues related to the insurance industry along with evaluating the marketplace as a whole. Notably, the paper examined how current trends in reinsurance impact the stability of the financial markets. The IAIS concluded that traditional reinsurance is unlikely to cause or amplify systemic risk that may or may not already exist in the market. However, considerable systemic risk may arise from non-insurance entities (such as investment banks) which have started to offer longevity and pension services with risk transformation and risk transfer features similar to products offered by insurers. The paper may be found at the IAIS website (www.iaisweb.org).
This post written by John Black.
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