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On the exposure of insurance companies to sovereign risk: Portfolio investments and market forces

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  • Düll, Robert
  • König, Felix
  • Ohls, Jana

Abstract

A sovereign debt crisis can have significant knock-on effects in the financial markets and put financial stability at risk. This paper focuses on the transmission of sovereign risk to insurance companies as some of the largest institutional investors in the sovereign bond market. We use a firm level panel dataset that covers large insurance companies, banks and non-financial firms from nine countries in the time period January 1st 2008 to May 1st 2013. We find significant and robust transmission effects from sovereign risk to domestic insurers. The impact on insurers is larger than for non-financial firms and slightly smaller than for banks. We find that systemically important insurers were more closely linked to the domestic sovereign. Based on European data, we show that risks in sovereign bond portfolios are an important driver of insurer risk, which is not reflected in current insurance regulation (incl. upcoming Solvency II in Europe).

Suggested Citation

  • Düll, Robert & König, Felix & Ohls, Jana, 2015. "On the exposure of insurance companies to sovereign risk: Portfolio investments and market forces," Discussion Papers 34/2015, Deutsche Bundesbank.
    • Handle: RePEc:zbw:bubdps:342015
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    References listed on IDEAS

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    Cited by:

    1. Alexander Braun & Hato Schmeiser & Florian Schreiber, 2018. "Return on Risk-Adjusted Capital Under Solvency II: Implications for the Asset Management of Insurance Companies," The Geneva Papers on Risk and Insurance - Issues and Practice, Palgrave Macmillan;The Geneva Association, vol. 43(3), pages 456-472, July.
    2. Grochola, Nicolaus & Schlütter, Sebastian, 2023. "Discretionary decisions in capital requirements under Solvency II," ICIR Working Paper Series 50/23, Goethe University Frankfurt, International Center for Insurance Regulation (ICIR).
    3. Grochola, Nicolaus & Browne, Mark Joseph & Gründl, Helmut & Schlütter, Sebastian, 2021. "Exploring the market risk profiles of U.S. and European life insurers," ICIR Working Paper Series 39/21, Goethe University Frankfurt, International Center for Insurance Regulation (ICIR).
    4. van Riet, Ad, 2016. "Government Funding Privileges in European Financial Law : Making Public Debt Everybody's Favourite?," Other publications TiSEM b1290139-3e4e-4a2d-a783-9, Tilburg University, School of Economics and Management.
    5. Alberto Dreassi & Stefano Miani & Andrea Paltrinieri & Alex Sclip, 2018. "Bank-Insurance Risk Spillovers: Evidence from Europe," The Geneva Papers on Risk and Insurance - Issues and Practice, Palgrave Macmillan;The Geneva Association, vol. 43(1), pages 72-96, January.
    6. Meier, Samira & Rodriguez Gonzalez, Miguel & Kunze, Frederik, 2021. "The global financial crisis, the EMU sovereign debt crisis and international financial regulation: lessons from a systematic literature review," International Review of Law and Economics, Elsevier, vol. 65(C).

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    More about this item

    Keywords

    insurance; sovereign risk; sovereign bond portfolio;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • G22 - Financial Economics - - Financial Institutions and Services - - - Insurance; Insurance Companies; Actuarial Studies
    • G28 - Financial Economics - - Financial Institutions and Services - - - Government Policy and Regulation
    • G15 - Financial Economics - - General Financial Markets - - - International Financial Markets

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