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Does Having an Affiliated Bank Improve Life Insurer Performance in a Turbulent Market?
Author(s) -
Chiang ChiaChun
Publication year - 2020
Publication title -
journal of risk and insurance
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.055
H-Index - 63
eISSN - 1539-6975
pISSN - 0022-4367
DOI - 10.1111/jori.12286
Subject(s) - life insurance , business , balance sheet , monetary economics , life annuity , annuity , actuarial science , finance , economics , financial system , pension
I find that life insurers with bank affiliates had higher premium growth rates than did other life insurers in 2008. The higher growth is derived mainly from annuity products (deposit‐type insurance products), which are often viewed as substitutes for bank certificates of deposit (CDs). The growth effect is consistent with cross‐selling between affiliated banks and affiliated life insurers. The spread between the guaranteed rates on annuity products and CDs in financial conglomerates widened in 2008, consistent with headquarters differentiating prices to move customers within the same group. In addition, the premium growth effect in 2008 is stronger for life insurers that suffered larger balance sheet shocks, as measured by the change in the risk‐based capital (RBC) ratio. The results support that headquarters used internal markets to reallocate resources to weaker divisions.