The importance of life insurance companies as part of the financial sector has significantly increased over the past decades, both as provider of important financial services to consumers and as a major investor in the capital market. However, the authors still observe a large variance in life...

Solvency-both as an economic requirement in the market and as a regulatory and supervisory tool-is critical to all insurance markets. Current market conditions, coupled with expected institutional changes, will place particular burdens on emerging and developing markets. Institutional solvency,...

The U.S. life insurance industry comprises more than 1,200 active companies with an impressive record of innovation. Annual premiums for life insurance and annuity products amount to about 5 percent of GNP and total assets to 26 percent of GNP. Life insurance companies are major participants in...

Non-bank financial intermediaries (NBFIs) comprise a mixed bag of institutions, ranging from leasing, factoring, and venture capital companies to various types of contractual savings and institutional investors (pension funds, insurance companies, and mutual funds). The common characteristic of...

Germany's pension system was originally designed as a scaled premium system. It formally became a pay-as-you-go system in 1957. Participation in the system is mandatory for all dependent employees and only some groups of self-employed. The system is greatly fragmented in terms of institutions,...

Mauritius belongs to a select group of developing countries where contractual savings-savings with insurance companies and pension funds-exceed 40 percent of GDP and represent a major potential force in the local financial system. Pension funds account for 75 percent of contractual savings....

The oil sector is critical to Ecuador's economy, contributing about 17 percent to the country's GDP. Ecuador began exporting crude oil in 1972 and over the past two and a half decades oil has become the country's most important sector. It is controlled by the government through the public...

The Caribbean region suffers from a high degree of economic volatility. A history of repeated external and domestic shocks has made economic insecurity a major concern across the region. Of particular concern to all households, especially the poorest segments of the population, is the exposure...

Residual stochastic risks from catastrophic natural events can be addressed through insurance pooling and risk transfer mechanisms that provide thebasis for financial protection and instill strong incentives for reducing vulnerability. To reduce the economic stress after disasters, the author...

The insurance industry is relatively well developed. It makes extensive use of reinsurance facilities and is free from the pervasive premium, product, investment, and reinsurance controls that have bedeviled the insurance markets of so many developing countries around the world. Total premiums...