Managing Capital And Insolvency Risk Via Internal Capital Market Transactions

Understanding the movement of capital between insurers and affiliated companies under common ownership is important for understanding insurer insolvency risk and the impact of regulatory policies regarding capital standards and group supervision. Aggregate data indicate that life insurers received substantial internal capital contributions from other entities in their group and decreased the internal shareholder dividends paid during the financial crisis. Panel data estimates indicate that, on average, a dollar decrease in net income when net income is negative is associated with a $0.32 increase in capital contributions from other entities in the group, and that a dollar increase in net income when net income is positive is associated with a $0.56 increase in the amount of internal shareholder dividends paid by the insurer to other entities in the group. Also, insurers with low (high) risk-based capital ratios receive more (less) internal capital contributions than other insurers. While the sensitivity of internal capital movements to performance and capitalization is concentrated in groups with a large number of affiliates, insurers in these groups do not on average, holding other factors constant, have lower capital or lower liquidity ratios than insurers in groups with less active internal capital markets.

The University of Chicago Law Review's 4th issue of 2014 features articles and essays from recognized legal scholars, as well as extensive student research. Contents include: Articles: • The Legal Salience of Taxation, by Andrew T. Hayashi • Tax-Loss Mechanisms, by Jacob Nussim & Avraham Tabbach • Regulating Systemic Risk in Insurance, by Daniel Schwarcz & Steven L. Schwarcz • American Constitutional Exceptionalism Revisited, by Mila Versteeg & Emily Zackin Comments: • Bursting the Speech Bubble: Toward a More Fitting Perceived-Affiliation Standard, by Nicholas A. Caselli • Payments to Not Parent? Noncustodial Parents as the Recipients of Child Support, by Emma J. Cone-Roddy • Too Small to Fail: A New Perspective on Environmental Penalties for Small Businesses, by Nicholas S. Dufau • Understanding Equal Sovereignty, by Abigail B. Molitor • "Widespread" Uncertainty: The Exclusionary Rule in Civil-Removal Proceedings, by Michael J. O’Brien • Clogged Conduits: A Defendant's Right to Confront His Translated Statements, by Casen B. Ross • "Integral" Decisionmaking: Judicial Interpretation of Predispute Arbitration Agreements Naming the National Arbitration Forum, by Daniel A. Sito Volume 81, Number 4 also features Review Essays by Lisa Bernstein, Avery W. Katz, and Eyal Zamir, analyzing three recent books on contract law and theory.

The evolution of risk management has resulted from the interplay of financial crises, risk management practices, and regulatory actions. In the 1970s, research lay the intellectual foundations for the risk management practices that were systematically implemented in the 1980s as bond trading revolutionized Wall Street. Quants developed dynamic hedging, Value-at-Risk, and credit risk models based on the insights of financial economics. In parallel, the Basel I framework created a level playing field among banks across countries. Following the 1987 stock market crash, the near failure of Salomon Brothers, and the failure of Drexel Burnham Lambert, in 1996 the Basel Committee on Banking Supervision published the Market Risk Amendment to the Basel I Capital Accord; the amendment went into effect in 1998. It led to a migration of bank risk management practices toward market risk regulations. The framework was further developed in the Basel II Accord, which, however, from the very beginning, was labeled as being procyclical due to the reliance of capital requirements on contemporaneous volatility estimates. Indeed, the failure to measure and manage risk adequately can be viewed as a key contributor to the 2008 global financial crisis. Subsequent innovations in risk management practices have been dominated by regulatory innovations, including capital and liquidity stress testing, macroprudential surcharges, resolution regimes, and countercyclical capital requirements.

The Financial Crisis Inquiry Report, published by the U.S. Government and the Financial Crisis Inquiry Commission in early 2011, is the official government report on the United States financial collapse and the review of major financial institutions that bankrupted and failed, or would have without help from the government. The commission and the report were implemented after Congress passed an act in 2009 to review and prevent fraudulent activity. The report details, among other things, the periods before, during, and after the crisis, what led up to it, and analyses of subprime mortgage lending, credit expansion and banking policies, the collapse of companies like Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, and the federal bailouts of Lehman and AIG. It also discusses the aftermath of the fallout and our current state. This report should be of interest to anyone concerned about the financial situation in the U.S. and around the world.THE FINANCIAL CRISIS INQUIRY COMMISSION is an independent, bi-partisan, government-appointed panel of 10 people that was created to "examine the causes, domestic and global, of the current financial and economic crisis in the United States." It was established as part of the Fraud Enforcement and Recovery Act of 2009. The commission consisted of private citizens with expertise in economics and finance, banking, housing, market regulation, and consumer protection. They examined and reported on "the collapse of major financial institutions that failed or would have failed if not for exceptional assistance from the government."News Dissector DANNY SCHECHTER is a journalist, blogger and filmmaker. He has been reporting on economic crises since the 1980's when he was with ABC News. His film In Debt We Trust warned of the economic meltdown in 2006. He has since written three books on the subject including Plunder: Investigating Our Economic Calamity (Cosimo Books, 2008), and The Crime Of Our Time: Why Wall Street Is Not Too Big to Jail (Disinfo Books, 2011), a companion to his latest film Plunder The Crime Of Our Time. He can be reached online at www.newsdissector.com.

We propose a new bankruptcy procedure. Initially, a firm's debts are cancelled, and cash and non-cash bids are solicited for the 'new" (all-equity) firm. Former claimants are given shares, or options to buy shares, in the new firm on the basis of absolute priority. Options are exercised once the bids are in. Finally, a shareholder vote is taken to select one of the bids. In essence, our procedure is a variant on the U.S. Chapter 7, in which non-cash bids are possible; this allows for reorganization. We believe our scheme is superior to Chapter 11 since it is simpler, quicker, market-based, avoids conflicts, and places appropriate discipline on management.

Until about twenty years ago, the consensus view on the cause of financial-system distress was fairly simple: a run on one bank could easily turn to a panic involving runs on all banks, destroying some and disrupting the financial system. Since then, however, a series of events—such as emerging-market debt crises, bond-market meltdowns, and the Long-Term Capital Management episode—has forced a rethinking of the risks facing financial institutions and the tools available to measure and manage these risks. The Risks of Financial Institutions examines the various risks affecting financial institutions and explores a variety of methods to help institutions and regulators more accurately measure and forecast risk. The contributors--from academic institutions, regulatory organizations, and banking--bring a wide range of perspectives and experience to the issue. The result is a volume that points a way forward to greater financial stability and better risk management of financial institutions.

The future of the insurance regulation begins now For those involved with the insurance industry, from investmentprofessionals to policy makers, and regulators to legislators,tremendous change is coming. With insurance premiums constitutingan ever-growing portion of annual U.S. GDP and provisions of theDodd-Frank Act specifically calling for modernization of insuranceregulations, the issues at hand are pervasive. In ModernizingInsurance Regulation, these issues are described against abackdrop of the political and industry discussions that surroundinsurance, regulation, and systemic risk. Experts Viral V. Acharyaand Matthew Richardson discuss a variety of issues with topthinkers in the fields of finance, derivatives, credit risk, andbanking to bring to light the most germane elements of this ongoingdiscussion. In Modernizing Insurance Regulation, Acharya andRichardson call on the expertise of all the relevant stakeholderswithin government, academia, and industry to offer a well-roundedand independent view of insurance regulation and how the evolutionof this key industry affects the U.S. economy now and in thefuture. Provides an overview of the feasibility of maintaining astate-level regulatory structure Offers a view of the issues from top academics, industryleaders, and state regulators Explores the debate surrounding the insurance industry andsystemic risk Provides an in-depth look at upcoming changes under theDodd-Frank Act Modernizing Insurance Regulation provides a look into thecrucial changes coming to insurance regulation and an overview ofhow those changes will affect almost everyone.

Capital markets can improve risk sharing and the efficiency with which capital is allocated to the real economy, boosting economic growth and welfare. However, despite these potential benefits, not all countries have well developed capital markets. Moreover, government-led initiatives to develop local capital markets have had mixed success. This paper reviews the literature on the benefits and costs of developing local capital markets, and describes the challenges faced in the development of such markets. The paper concludes with a set of policy recommendations emerging from this literature.