According to the report, while the global economic outlook continues to improve, the prolonged low yield environment and low market volatility coupled with high levels of economic and political uncertainty continue to represent major challenges for European insurers and pensions funds.

This time last year as nervous eyes were cast towards 2017 many were worried about the uncertainty that geo-political events could cause in the financial markets. Such worries were not without foundation as the Brexit vote and the election of Donald Trump were vivid illustrations of the extent to which the march of populism was shaping world events.

When Jeremy Corbyn became leader of the Labour Party in 2015, the City and wider financial services sector, along with most political pundits, stopped taking Labour seriously. That all changed after the General Election on 8 June this year when Corbyn led the Labour Party to a modest recovery that consolidated his – and the Labour left’s – grip on the Labour Party.

The return to more conventional monetary policies and the continued search for yield are going to be the dominant themes for 2018, according to the panelists at the recent Insurance Investment Exchange seminar.

This week, Fitch Ratings said that the Financial Conduct Authority's (FCA) review of the London Market could result in lower pricing and it becoming more competitive with smaller hubs across the world.

A year ago, as the world was coming to terms with the reality of Donald Trump as the next incumbent of the White House, one topic that unnerved the financial markets was the prospect that he wouldn’t re-appoint Janet Yellen for a second term as chair of the US Federal Reserve.