Category: Regulation

U.S. Insurers’ Bank Loan Exposure Rises at a Decelerated Pace in 2023

Mary Pat Campbell

Link:

https://content.naic.org/sites/default/files/capital-markets-special-reports-bank-loans-ye2023_0.pdf

Graphic:

Executive Summary:

Bank loan investments increased to about $122 billion in book/adjusted carrying value (BACV)
at year-end 2023 from $117 billion at year-end 2022.

Despite the 4.6% growth, bank loansremained at 1.4% of U.S. insurers’ total cash and invested
assets at year-end 2023—the same as year-end 2022.

Approximately 70% of U.S. insurers’ bank loan investments were acquired, and 85% were held
by life companies.

In particular, large life companies, or those with more than $10 billion in assets under
management, accounted for 82% of U.S. insurers’ bank loan exposure, up from nearly 80% in
2022.

The top 25 insurance companies accounted for 75% of U.S. insurers’ total bank loan
investments at year-end 2023; the top 10 accounted for about 60%.

Improvement in credit quality for U.S. insurer-bank loans continued, evidenced by a fourpercentage-point increase in those carrying NAIC 1 and NAIC 2 designations and a
corresponding four-percentage-point decrease in bank loans carrying NAIC 3 and NAIC 4
designations.

Author(s): Jennifer Johnson

Publication Date: 16 July 2024

Publication Site: NAIC Capital Markets Special Report

Bonds Yields Jump Again Wiping Out the May Treasury Rally

Mary Pat Campbell

Link: https://mishtalk.com/economics/bonds-yields-jump-again-wiping-out-the-may-treasury-rally/

Graphic:

Excerpt:

Yield on the 10-year treasury is 4.59 percent on May 29, right where it started the month. A quarter-point rally on hopes of rate cuts vanished today.

Yields are still lower than the 2024 intraday peak of 4.74 percent, but they are nearly 70 basis points higher than the start of the year as rate cut after rate cut hopes keep getting priced out.

Minneapolis Federal Reserve President Neel Kashkari says he wants to see “many more months” of positive inflation numbers before interest rates start to come down — and refused to rule out a rate hike if needed.

Author(s): Mike Shedlock

Publication Date: 29 May 2024

Publication Site: Mish Talk