The search for new asset classes has gathered momentum across the insurance industry, as the feeling strengthens that the investment paradigm – static for so long – is now shifting.

One of the biggest changes in sentiment among insurance company CIOs over the last two years has been the steady growth in interest in illiquid assets. 

The discussion around the table explored how this approach could be applied to some of the challenges insurers face, and indeed some have already begun to.

Illiquid assets have been gaining in popularity among insurers over the last couple of years. This has been a steady trend, not a headlong rush, but it is sufficient to start gently ringing the alarm bells at the Bank of England and the Prudential Regulation Authority.

The preliminaries are over. The initial skirmishes have been conducted. Now the battle over the review of Solvency II is starting to get serious.

French president Emmanuel Macron has given a major boost to the European Union’s drive to make sustainable finance a core element of all institutional investment strategies including Solvency II.