Allianz
Allianz revamps management
Allianz has appointed Christof Mascher as chief operating officer (COO) of Allianz Group and a member of the board of management, replacing outgoing COO Oliver Bäte. Jay Ralph, currently chairman of Allianz Life Insurance Company of North America, will…
Different degrees
Solvency II will require a massive upgrade in insurers’ technological capability. But as the deadline for implementation looms ever closer, not all in the industry have made the same level of progress.
Bangers and the crash
Editor's Letter
Wilson takes over as Dresdner's risk chief
Thomas Wilson has succeeded Otto Steinmetz as chief risk officer of Dresdner Bank in Frankfurt, after Steinmetz retired earlier this month.
New risk chiefs at Swiss Re and Allianz
Allianz's chief risk officer Raj Singh is moving to become chief risk officer at Swiss Re. His replacement is Thomas Wilson.
Swiss Re plans first flood bond issue
Reinsurer Swiss Re intends to issue the world’s first catastrophe bonds, giving investors exposure to flood risk, by the end of March.
CRO Forum study released
Industry body the Chief Risk Officer (CRO) Forum, which consists of the chief risk officers of Europe's leading insurers, is advancing the case for the use of proprietary internal models under Solvency II with the publication of a new in-depth report.
TCW Group hires CDO manager
Los Angeles-headquartered asset manager, TCW Group, a subsidiary of Société Générale, has hired Edward Steffelin for its New York office.
European credit spreads remain tight
Spreads in the credit derivatives market continued to stay tight in Europe this week, based on expectations of a swift war in Iraq. London-based traders said overall liquidity has remained very thin since the official start of the conflict on Wednesday.
Terror threats push up European credit default spreads
Credit default swap spreads for European corporates started to widen during the later part of this week. Fears of a terrorist attack in London or elsewhere, coupled with generally weak equity markets, started to reduce confidence in the market, traders…
FSA decision prompts tightening for insurers' credit spreads
The cost of protection for the European insurance sector has tightened by up to 15bp in trading this week following a decision by UK regulator, the Financial Services Authority (FSA), to ease regulatory solvency requirements for individual life assurers.
FSA decision prompts tightening for insurers’ credit spreads
The cost of protection for the European insurance sector has tightened by up to 15bp in trading this week following a decision by UK regulator, the Financial Services Authority (FSA), to ease regulatory solvency requirements for individual life assurers.
Credit default swaps remain tight despite falling equities
Credit default swap spreads in Europe have remained relatively tight this week despite falling equities. The trend is being supported by the current dislocation between credit and equity, and also continued large issuance of synthetic CDOs, according to…
Credit spreads widen as equity continues falling
Falling equities and the increased likelihood of conflict in Iraq continued to drive spreads wider in the credit derivatives market this week.
HVB protection surges on downgrade
The cost of senior credit protection for the five-year debt of Germany's HypoVereinsbank (HVB) has surged nearly 30 basis points this week following a two-notch downgrade of its unsecured deposit and debt rating by Moody’s late on Wednesday.
Traders see interest in short-dated protection for insurers
Credit derivatives traders said interest in short-dated protection on European insurers was active this week. But the cost of protection in the normally more liquid five-year credit default swap markets for European financial institutions remained…
Credit protection for European telecoms continues to tighten
The cost of credit protection for European telecoms continued to tighten this week, led by France Telecom and boosted by an S&P upgrade for the Netherlands' KPN yesterday. Elsewhere in Europe, spreads remained tight with little movement, including those…
European asset managers gear up for CAD3
European asset management firms wanting to comply with the most sophisticated measurement method allowed in the revised Basel Accords—the advanced measurement approach (AMA)—must prepare now, as it requires them to have a whole set of advanced risk…
C&W protection costs widen 200bp following restructuring talk
The cost of credit protection on debt of UK telecommunications company Cable and Wireless (C&W) has widened by more than 200 basis points since its revealed late Wednesday that it would cut 3,500 jobs, undergo a major restructuring and reassess its off…
Weak equity markets continue to fuel widening in European credit spreads
Equity weakness continued to dominate the direction of European credit default swaps, pushing the cost of protection wider for volatile insurers and telecoms.
German insurer and bank credit spreads hit by downgrade fears
The cost of protection for German reinsurance company Munich Re and German banks Deutsche, Commerzbank and Dresdner widened today following negative rating and outlook changes by Moody's Investor Services.
European credit protection widens in low liquidity
Liquidity in the European credit derivatives market remained weak following the US Labor Day holiday this week, with traders saying spreads "drifted outwards" following yesterday’s poor equity markets performance.
US credit protection narrows following Wall Street equity rally
The price of credit default swaps for major US names tightened this week following two days of equity purchasing on Wall Street.
European insurers in joint effort to cover ‘terror risks’
Leading European insurance groups are set to combine resources to establish a Luxembourg-based company to cover property against acts of terrorism.