Market views: Back book selling

Jules Constantinou, Gen Re Most market commentary has focused on the premise that closed life firms would be more likely to decline claims as they have an obvious interest to maximise their profits and no commercial interest in treating their customers fairly. A reinsurer may in fact have an opposite view of this risk. Most closed-book transactions have been completed by run-off specialists primarily looking to extract value for their shareholders by streamlining all processes and benefiting from the economies of scale that combining numerous portfolios brings. To the extent that m...