Archive for the ‘insurance’ Category
Thursday, May 21st, 2009
Regarding the life insurance biz, a reader forwards a (mildly) helpful slideshow from Fitch, along with the following comments:
My key takeaway [from this report is] that Risk Based Capital across the industry is still relatively healthy (although as a construct, it is questionable). But continued deterioration combined with liquidity risk ...
Posted in insurance | 1 Comment »
Friday, May 15th, 2009
WSJ reported last night that Treasury had finally settled on bailout amounts for the large life insurers. They reported back in April that the companies had been approved to participate in TARP, but it wasn't until yesterday that actual bailout amounts were leaked.
In total, six companies---Hartford, Principal Financial, Allstate, Ameriprise, ...
Posted in bailout, insurance, stocks | 3 Comments »
Monday, April 27th, 2009
CBS News is reporting that the Justice Department has opened a criminal investigation into AIG's downfall:
Sources say investigators are digging into whether Joseph Cassano, the former head of London-based AIG Financial Products, and two of his top deputies - Andrew Forster, an executive vice president, and Thomas Athan, a managing ...
Posted in insurance, prosecutions, Wall Street | 1 Comment »
Sunday, April 19th, 2009
Allstate CEO Tom Wilson wrote an op-ed in NYT this week that may have gotten him into hot water with regulators. Here's the offending paragraph:
My company, Allstate, serves more than 17 million American households. While we played only a small role in unregulated insurance markets, we have a duty to ...
Posted in credit default swaps, insurance | 5 Comments »
Wednesday, April 15th, 2009
As with banks, the long-term survival of the life insurance industry is likely to be determined by its access to bailout funds. No one trusts insurers' balance sheets, which face "unprecedented stress" according to S&P, so they aren't able to raise capital privately. (Bloomberg)
U.S. life insurers...face “unprecedented stress” on holdings ...
Posted in insurance, stocks | 2 Comments »
Wednesday, April 8th, 2009
Here's a link to my NPR interview this afternoon. Just press the play button below the photo. The topic I discussed was the troubled state of the life insurance business. The story at the top of the podcast is also interesting---self-inflicted wage deflation, i.e. volunteering to take a pay cut.
I ...
Posted in insurance | 1 Comment »
Wednesday, April 8th, 2009
Bloomberg:
Berkshire Hathaway had its long-term issuer rating cut to Aa2 from Aaa by Moody’s.
Not mentioned---Buffett owns 20% of Moody's stock...
Posted in credit rating agencies, insurance, stocks | No Comments »
Wednesday, April 8th, 2009
Insurance stocks were up big in morning trading on news Treasury will make them eligible for TARP. (WSJ)
The Treasury Department has decided to extend bailout funds to a number of struggling life-insurance companies...
The department is expected to announce the expansion of the Troubled Asset Relief Program to aid the ailing ...
Posted in bailout, insurance, treasury | No Comments »
Tuesday, March 31st, 2009
In February, OA published thoughts regarding the troubled state of the insurance industry. First we noted that insurers were seeking to change their regulatory capital requirements in order to avoid harming shareholders---say by cutting dividends or raising incremental capital. We also wrote that, at the corporate level, many companies are ...
Posted in insurance | 4 Comments »
Sunday, March 15th, 2009
WSJ:
American International Group Inc. will pay $450 million in bonuses to employees in its financial products unit. That division was at the heart of AIG's collapse last fall, which compelled the U.S. government to provide $173.3 billion in aid to keep it running...
"I do not like these arrangements and find ...
Posted in bailout, credit default swaps, insurance | 2 Comments »
Thursday, March 12th, 2009
OA has been following the insurance industry for a couple months now. We noted that insurance regulators are bending capital requirements, that insurers' leverage is too high to be healthy and that the protection regime meant to protect policy-holders is little more than a mirage.
The WSJ is reporting the story ...
Posted in bailout, insurance, leverage | No Comments »
