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.

This week, the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) launched a market study to assess how competition is working in the wholesale insurance broker sector, and also released ‘FCA Mission–Our Future Approach to Consumers’.

This week, the International Association of Insurance Supervisors (IAIS) held its annual conference in Kuala Lumpur. It announced a unified path to convergence of group capital standards in furtherance of its ultimate goal of a single Insurance Capital Standard, and also agreed a five-year agreement to enhance the actuarial skills of supervisory authorities.

The investment landscape for 2018 is already looking intriguingly different to almost any year since the great financial crisis (GFC) nailed interest rates to the floor and introduced us to quantitative easing. Indeed, it could come to be seen as the real start of a post-GFC era.