The darkening mood of ratings agencies is heaping more pressure on investment portfolios and managers in the insurance sector.

Climate change. No, this is not another article to send onto those poor underwriting folk, as they struggle to develop new models for assessing and transferring climate change related risks, especially at the catastrophe end of the risk spectrum.

Regulatory pressures, investment constraints, and the difficulties of managing the portfolio construction process are converging to challenge the insurance industry and its investment managers.

The appointment of Andrew Bailey to head up the Financial Conduct Authority has set off a chain of consequences across the City regulators, including the Bank of England.

The last few years have seen a mushrooming forest of regulation – not just Solvency II – that insurers need to understand and assimilate into their business model and investment strategy.

European insurers are unlikely to be able to generate sufficient investment returns in future to meet the guaranteed rates offered on many of their regular savings products, according to a new survey by Standard Life Investments.