Inflation is casting a darkening shadow across all major economies, knocking away the complacency that assumes its once corrosive influence has been neutralised.

The evolving landscape of commercial real estate markets post-Covid, changes in cashflow and risk profiles, and the implications for insurance portfolios were all on the agenda for the latest Insurance Investment Exchange virtual roundtable.

Insurance company CIOs watching COP26 are probably feeling contrasting emotions. On the one hand, none of them will be wishing for it to fail in pulling the world back from the brink of potential catastrophe but they will not want too many new rules tying their hands – at least not too many, too fast.

New guidance to help regulated firms manage climate-related financial risk has been published by the Bank of England's Climate Financial Risk Forum (CFRF) in advance of next week's COP26 conference opening in Glasgow. This is aimed at all financial services firms, including insurers and asset managers.

The steady growth of the green bond market has accelerated during 2021 and is set for a further boost as the European Commission (EC) takes another step towards establishing standards for green bonds.

The long-awaited overhaul of the Solvency II regime moved a step closer this week when the European Commission published proposals it claims could release as much as €90bn of capital currently held by insurers.