Impact Of Global Financial Crisis On Life Insurance Industry

This book is an outcome of the research undertaken on impact of global financial crisis on Life Insurance industry in South India. Insurance in any economy is regarded as a pillar of growth for overall development of the economy. Volatile economic condition with recent financial crisis changed the competitive landscape in life insurance industry with a challenging future ahead in India.An examination of the effect of the crisis on Indian economy and savings pattern of people and priority for insurance is made. It contains a quantitative and objective assessment of how well the life insurers in India managed the global crisis in Madurai Division and at the National level. There is an analysis on the behaviour of policyholders' towards LIC and views towards global financial crisis and perceptions of the policyholders about the service rendered by the LIC of India using SERQUAL model.It is hope that the readers will be enlightened on the necessity for investing in life insurance during their earning period.It also offers some valuable insights to the branch managers of LIC to aggressively improve customer service standards and revamp distribution networks.

This special report assesses the impact of the crisis on the insurance sector and reviews policy responses within OECD countries.

Many people believed that insurance is regarded a shock absorber of the economy, then it might not be the sector that was affected by the current financial crisis. However, the collapse of America International Group (AIG) in 2008 has ignited a question of the link between the financial crisis and insurance industry. Although, there were several studies and papers of International Monetary Fund or Geneva Association of Insurance, etc' which discussed about the possible impacts of the financial crisis, rarely there had studies referring to the different roles of insurance in the economy. This thesis aimed to discover the impacts of the financial crisis on insurance sector regarding its various roles. Insurer play two roles in the economy: one as the financial player where it makes profit from the earned premium in the financial market and the other as its normal activity, insurance, which is related to the general economic stage. So the insurance industry had to suffer during the period of crisis in both two ways. In spite of the limited data, this report believes to give the readers an overview of insurers' condition through the period of financial crisis after outlining the major impacts and studying the several specific cases. The impacts from financial markets were due to the collapse of the securities market and the loss on subprime mortgage. In general economic stage, insurance companies felt the heat of the crisis through the shrinkage of demand in insurance products and the rise of insurance fraud. Moreover, it showed that the consequences heavily depended on the connection between the insurers with the financial world and the development of the market where insurance companies operate. That is why Vietnam represents the special case which still enjoys the growth rate of 20-30% per year. In addition, life insurance was affected much more than non-life insurance because of its extensive investment portfolio. By studying three famous case studies (AIG, ING Group and Bao Viet Holdings), the thesis strengthens the points which were made in the theoretical part. It is important to notice that not all of the mentioned symptoms happened to every insurance company. The impacts on insurance sector depended on the link between the company and financial market, the development level of the industry, the company's investment portfolio and the operation's areas. The company could be hit by its financial activities like AIG or by the regions it operated like ING Insurance or by the general economic recession like Bao Viet Holdings. The slash of AIG's stock and the sharp decline of financial activities proved that financial department was the reason for all the mess of ING. Meanwhile, ING Insurance's loss was resulted from its activities in the US, the origin of the financial crisis, following was Europe. Finally, Bao Viet Holdings was the typically insurance company which only had insurance activities in one developing country, Vietnam, an immature insurance market. It still enjoyed the development of 10% in life insurance and 20% in non-life insurance. The real reason for this surprising fact was the lack of relationship between insurance sector and financial market and the underdeveloped insurance environment containing of only traditional products.

Since the deregulation of the Indian insurance sector in 1999, the market-share of the country's sole largest public-sector player Life Insurance Corporation of India has drastically gone down with the entry of private players. The abrupt rise in the presence of private players has eventually raised concerns about the performances of the life insurance players in safeguarding the interests of the policyholders. Further, the global financial crisis of 2007-08 had its contagion effects in the Indian insurance industry, the ripples of which were even felt in the performances of the Indian life insurers. The study thus makes an attempt to evaluate the operational efficiencies, productivity and financial health of the life insurance companies in India, covering the period from 2008-09 to 2014-15 against the backdrop of the global financial crisis and the insurance sector deregulation in India. The study has also hinted at the monopolistic-competition type of market structure prevailing in the country's life insurance sector. The study further gave indications about the commendable turnaround manifested by the life insurers from the spill-over effects of the financial crisis post 2010.

The U.S. life and property/casualty (P/C) insurance industries wrote over $1 trillion in total premiums in 2011 and play an important role in ensuring the smooth functioning of the economy. Concerns about the oversight of the insurance industry arose during the 2007-2009 financial crisis, when one of the largest U.S. holding companies that had substantial insurance operations, American International Group, Inc. (AIG), suffered large losses. These losses were driven in large part by activities conducted by a non-insurance affiliate, AIG Financial Products, but also included securities lending activity undertaken by some of its life insurance companies which created liquidity issues for some insurers. The losses threatened to bankrupt the company, and AIG was one of the largest recipients of assistance by the Federal Reserve Bank of New York and the federal government under the Troubled Asset Relief Program (TARP) set up during the crisis. This book examines any effects of the financial crisis on the insurance industry and policyholders, and addresses what is known about how the financial crisis affected the insurance industry and policyholders, and the types of actions that have been taken since the crisis to help prevent or mitigate potential negative effects of future economic downturns on insurance companies and their policyholders.

This paper explores insurance as a source of financial system vulnerability. It provides a brief overview of the insurance industry and reviews the risks it faces, as well as several recent failures of insurance companies that had systemic implications. Assimilation of banking-type activities by life insurers appears to be the key systemic vulnerability. Building on this experience and the experience gained under the FSAP, the paper proposes key indicators that should be compiled and used for surveillance of financial soundness of insurance companies and the insurance sector as a whole.

This book examines the challenges for the life insurance sector in Europe arising from new technologies, socio-cultural and demographic trends, and the financial crisis. It presents theoretical and applied research in all areas related to life insurance products and markets, and explores future determinants of the insurance industry’s development by highlighting novel solutions in insurance supervision and trends in consumer protection. Drawing on their academic and practical expertise, the contributors identify problems relating to risk analysis and evaluation, demographic challenges, consumer protection, product distribution, mortality risk modeling, applications of life insurance in contemporary pension systems, financial stability and solvency of life insurers. They also examine the impact of population aging on life insurance markets and the role of digitalization. Lastly, based on an analysis of early experiences with the implementation of the Solvency II system, the book provides policy recommendations for the development of life insurance in Europe.

India has recently emerged as a major political & economic power in the world. The financial crisis that engulfed the world in 2008 needed developing countries like India to lead the rescue and recovery, instead of G7 westerns countries who dealt with such crisis in the past. Recently, discussions and negotiations are going amongst G20 countries regarding a new global financial architecture (G-20 Summit, 2008). The outcome will affect the relevant industries in India and hence it is a public interest issue for the actuarial profession in the country. Increased and more intrusive and costly regulations and red tapes are likely to be a part of the new deal (Economic Survey 2009-10).The objective of this paper is to study the perception of higher level authorities in Insurance sector regarding the role of regulator in minimizing the impact of global financial crisis. The primary data has been collected from 200 authorities in insurance industry. The data has been analyzed with statistical tools like MS-Excel.On the basis of the findings, various measures and policy recommendations for insurers have been suggested to minimize the impact of crisis.

Major challenges for life insurance companies have been posed by an unprecedented wave of mergers and acquisitions in the insurance industry and the emergence of non-traditional competitors such as banks, mutual fund companies and investment advisory firms. This is the first book to analyze the determinants of firm performance in the life insurance industry by identifying the `best practices' employed by leading insurers to succeed in this dynamic business environment. The book draws upon data from insurer financial statements as well as upon an extensive survey of life insurer management practices and strategic choices in distribution systems, information technology, mergers and acquisitions, human resources and financial strategies. Generic strategies such as cost leadership, customer focus, and product differentiation are analyzed as well as strategic practices specific to the insurance industry. Best practices are identified by measuring the economic efficiency of insurers and by comparing firms across the industry. Both cost and revenue efficiency are measured relative to best practice efficient frontiers consisting of the industry's dominant life insurance firms. Economies of scale and the effects of mergers and acquisitions on efficiency are also analyzed. Financial strategies are examined with specific reference to pricing policy, valuation of assets and liabilities, and the current state of firm-level risk management systems. The benchmarks established are the result of extensive fieldwork that identifies key financial risks and methodologies to both measure and manage them at the firm level. The results discussed in the book indicate that firm performance is significantly correlated with management practices and strategic choices. Thus, life insurers can improve profitability by adopting optimal combinations of strategies. The book contains important new material on the effects of strategic choices in product distribution systems, information technology, mergers and acquisitions, human resources, and financial risk management policies. In the area of efficiency, the methodology provides a new approach for identifying peer groups of insurers and measuring the performance of individual insurers relative to their peer group. On the topics of risk and pricing, new insights are offered relative to current methodologies and in regard to areas where improvement is clearly warranted. The book concludes with an analysis of the future opportunities and challenges in the life insurance industry facing managers, and the strategic options available to them to cope with these changes.

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.