This week, Swiss Re published a new Sigma report which identified 21 frontier markets worldwide, and Willis Towers Watson, in its 2016 Global Medical Trends, highlighted the increase in the cost of health insurance.

After several years of relative silence, the sudden resurgence of institutional shareholder criticism of excessive executive pay awards last week took people by surprise.

This week, several interesting surveys were published. Accenture's global report indicated that insurers should put people first to get the most out of digital transformation, whilst Teradata said that 83% of French, German and UK insurers polled saw big data strategy as their most critical priority.

This week, EIOPA published a Consultation Paper to derive the Ultimate Forward Rate (UFR) under Solvency II, whilst Insurance Europe said there seems to be a misunderstanding about how insurance liabilities are calculated.

UK insurer Phoenix Group is close to securing a £500m ($717m, €634m) buyout of smaller rival Sun Life from French insurance giant Axa, The Financial Times has reported.

Banks do derive benefits from negative interest rates, which are a net positive for the economy, said José Viñals director of monetary and capital markets at the IMF.