Insurer AT1 exposure low amid Credit Suisse shock: JP Morgan

Analysts astatine JP Morgan person assured that European insurers’ vulnerability to slope firm in installments and AT1 bonds are low, aft a rescue woody for nan beleaguered Credit Suisse shocked immoderate investors by leaving their bonds worthless.

JP Morgan notes that nan mean vulnerability to slope in installments is astir 6% of European insurers’ finance portfolios, pinch minimal vulnerability to sub-investment grade.

And successful summation to debased exposure, analysts besides mention respective different “pressure valves” that should thief to trim nan consequence for nan security assemblage arsenic volatility successful nan banking strategy persists.

Most insurers, for instance, besides clasp a ample proportionality of their slope in installments portfolio successful participating life products wherever nan consequence is shared pinch policyholders.

Pointing to circumstantial insurers, JP Morgan says this is nan lawsuit pinch AXA, Generali and Allianz, wherever it believes policyholder sharing could mitigate losses connected AT1 by 60% to 90%.

Similarly, UK life insurers utilizing nan ‘matching adjustment’ tin offset higher enslaved yields pinch a higher discount complaint for liabilities, JP Morgan says. Specifically, these insurers tin return into relationship a ample proportionality of nan in installments dispersed successful nan discount complaint for liabilities, wherever in installments is held to ‘match’ a semipermanent illiquid annuity portfolio, which mitigates nan Solvency II consequence of widening slope firm in installments spreads.

AT1 bonds and different banking investments person travel nether nan spotlight successful caller days aft nan stock prices of Swiss slope Credit Suisse plummeted, pursuing nan find of “material weakness” successful its financial situation.

Markets had already been jittery since nan illness of Silicon Valley Bank successful nan preceding week and fears of a repetition of nan 2008 financial clang led to authorities involution and nan buyout of Credit Suisse by UBS successful a US $3.2 cardinal deal.

But holders of Credit Suisse AT1 bonds discovered aft nan buyout that their holdings were now worthless, having antecedently been weighted astatine a corporate $17 billion.

AT1 bonds are converted into equity if a slope falls beneath a definite spot aliases superior limit and are designed to limit payer vulnerability successful nan arena of a banking illness and consequent bailout.

But while Credit Suisse has been saved for now by nan UBS buyout, Swiss regulators person decided to time off creditors retired of nan rescue deal, efficaciously wiping retired nan worth of immoderate AT1 bonds.

The astonishment move will perchance adhd further volatility to nan banking situation successful nan days to travel arsenic nan value of different AT1 bonds is apt to drop, but for insurers astatine slightest nan threat appears to beryllium minimal, according to JP Morgan.

Looking astatine nan vulnerability disclosed by circumstantial re/insurers, analysts statement that for Munich Re only 2% of its slope in installments portfolio is loss-bearing, while L&G only has £1 cardinal invested successful slope tier 1. Similarly, Zurich has informed JP Morgan that it “does not person an appetite for AT1”.