|
INSURERS AS INVESTORS |
|
 |
 |
INSURERS AS INVESTORS
The insurance industry is a key player in the capital markets, with holdings of nearly $5 trillion in government and corporate securities in 2007.
Insurance companies invest the premiums they collect in state and local municipal bonds, helping to fund the building of roads, schools and other public projects. They provide businesses with capital for research, expansions and other ventures through their investments in corporate equities and bonds.
Because their losses are more volatile than those in the life insurance sector, property/casualty insurers invest largely in high-quality liquid securities, which can be sold quickly to pay claims resulting from a major hurricane, earthquake or man-made disaster such as a terrorist attack. In 2007 alone, property/casualty insurers’ holdings in municipal bonds totaled $368.7 billion. Life insurers, whose benefit payments are more predictable, invest more heavily in corporate stocks and corporate and foreign bonds, with holdings in these sectors of $1.5 trillion and $1.9 trillion, respectively, in 2007.
| |
|
SELECTED INSURANCE INDUSTRY FINANCIAL ASSETS, 2007
($ billions)
Source: Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System, June 5, 2008.
| |
| |
|
|
|
