I assess how Basel III, Solvency II and the low interest rate environment will affect the financial connection between the bank and insurance sector by changing the funding patterns of banks as well as the investment strategies of life insurance companies. Especially for life insurance...

This paper analyzes the numerical impact of different surplus distribution mechanisms on the risk exposure of a life insurance company selling with profit life insurance policies with a cliquet-style interest rate guarantee. Three representative companies are considered, each using a different...

Dynamic hybrid products emerged in 2007 and are now well established in the German life insurance market. In this article, we study interaction effects between dynamic hybrid products and traditional deferred annuity contracts, that are sold by the same insurance company. The key question we...

This paper analyzes the numerical impact of different surplus distribution mechanisms on the risk exposure of a life insurance company selling with profit life insurance policies with a cliquet-style interest rate guarantee. Three representative companies are considered, each using a different...

I assess how Basel III, Solvency II and the low interest rate environment will affect the financial connection between the bank and insurance sector by changing the funding patterns of banks as well as the investment strategies of life insurance companies. Especially for life insurance...

The financial meltdown that began in 2007 revealed problems with the financial guarantee insurers and regulation of these insurers. Financial guarantee insurers, with business models dependent on AAA-credit ratings, were exposed to risks that threatened those ratings. These insurers had four...

This technical note highlights the functioning of the profit sharing mechanism of life insurance products using the example of classical German life contracts. The profit sharing and guarantee features of these contracts are potentially very costly from a capital requirements perspective, making...

Traditional life insurance policies in many markets are sold with minimum interest rate guarantees. This paper concentrates on the risk cliquet-style guarantees impose on the insurer, measured by shortfall probabilities under the so-called “real-world probability measure P”. We develop a...

This paper provides a means of estimating how ‘Solvency II' regulations — introduced in the European Union in January 2016 — might affect UK life insurers' incentives to hold different types of financial assets, and how these asset holdings are likely to vary in the face of hypothetical...

I examine competition in the sector of mortgage life insurance, in particular the Periodic Switching Right (PSR), by which the borrower can change his insurer once every period (say, every year). The PSR is likely to have pro competitive effects (lower premium), but by the same move, to lead to...