The International Association of Insurance Supervisors recently published its
2011 report on Insurance and Financial Stability. The paper presented a supervisory perspective on the insurance and reinsurance industry focusing on financial stability issues. Concerning reinsurance, the paper analyzed the nature of the industry itself, its connection to the insurance industry more generally, and the level of inter- and intra-connectedness among companies. Notably, the IAIS concludes that (1) evidence for global systemic risk to arise from reinsurance failures is small to non-existent; (2) the record and stress scenarios tested correspond to the results of a study commissioned by the Group of Thirty; and (3) reinsurers have reduced their exposure to non-insurance credit default swaps. The IAIS stated it will continue to monitor the industry in the future.
This post written by John Black.