RESEARCH PAPERS / ARTICLES

Zurich has launched the UK Innovation Foundry led by Mark Budd, UK head of innovation, which aims to address ever-changing customer demands and embed a culture of innovation throughout the insurer. The Innovation Foundry aims to seek long-term partnerships rather than focus on M&A or acquisition. This ‘start-to-finish’ level of collaboration will entail greater learning for all parties as well as drive sustainable and inclusive growth. Zurich said it will be able to work with

Trustee boards and The Pensions Regulator should adopt the Black Box Thinking approach to managing issues faced by defined benefit pension schemes, according to a new report by the Pensions Institute. A defined benefit (DB) pension scheme is one where the amount you’re paid is based on how many years you’ve worked for your employer and the salary you’ve earned. The new approach developed by author and broadcaster Matthew Syed - is based on the use of data from black box fligh

Pension transfer values as measured by the Xafinity Transfer Value Index fell steadily during January 2018, falling from £236,000 at the end of December 2017, to £231,000 at the end of January 2018. The Xafinity Transfer Value Index tracks the transfer value that would be provided by an example Defined benefit (DB) scheme to a member aged 64 who is currently entitled to a pension of £10,000 each year starting at age 65 (increasing each year in line with inflation). Different

The Pensions Regulator (TPR) has today announced that one million employers in the UK are now automatically enrolling their staff into a workplace pension. The first three-year review into the effectiveness of automatic enrolment (AE) was published at the end of last year and it concludes that AE has been a success to date, with another nine million workers having workplace pensions since 2012, making a total number of over 16m at the end of 2016. The greatest increase in the

Starting in February, the no-commission stock trading company will allow its users to buy and sell Bitcoin and Ethereum, as well 14 other crypto coins (such as Ripple, Litecoin, Bitcoin Cash, etc.). Co-founder Vlad Tenev said it will be a break-even operation which the company doesn’t plan to profit from–instead, it will be used to grow their customer base (now at ~3m) and increase paying subscribers. Since Robinhood doesn’t charge transaction fees, it could prove new competi

The UK’s bulk annuity market is expected to grow strongly this year with more than £15bn worth of deals over the course of 2018. What is bulk annuity? The traditional policy offered by large UK insurers. Pension schemes pay a premium and in exchange the insurer writes an annuity that pays the retirement income of a large chunk of a scheme's pensioners who have already retired. This increase in market activity has been driven by two factors. First, financial positions of schem

There were 35 catastrophe bonds worth a total of $10.7bn (£7.6bn) issued in 2017, signifying a record year for the insurance-linked securities (ILS) market. That is according to a new report from Aon Securities, which shows that the previous annual issuance record of $8.38bn in 2007 had already been surpassed by the end of June last year. In addition, the capacity of all catastrophe bonds active in the market totalled $25.7bn at the end of 2017 – another new record – while al

Three corporate behemoths - Amazon, Berkshire Hathaway and JPMorgan Chase & Co – announced on Tuesday that they have teamed up to create an independent healthcare company for their employees in the United States, causing the share value of major US health and insurance firms to plummet. The new not-for-profit company aims to harness the power of technology in order to provide employees with simplified, high-quality and transparent healthcare at a reasonable cost. This has fue