The impact of the financial turmoil on the local life insurance sector

Abstract

This dissertation purports to analyse the impact the financial turmoil has had on local insurance companies writing long term business. Research results in relation to the period under study, being 2007 to 2012, indicate that the financial turmoil has presented local life insurers with a challenging operating environment brought about by the challenges of uncertainty as a result of the continued low interest rate environment and volatile financial markets. Yet, overall the financial turmoil has had a limited negative impact on local life insurers as they still reported satisfactory and solid financial performance. Results demonstrate that local life insurers navigated successfully the extreme financial market conditions and emerged as being strong insurers as portrayed by the results for 2012, the year during which the financial turmoil had been slowly abiding. These results have been achieved given the strong business fundamentals and prudence in their management together with the regulatory measures adopted by the regulatory body of Malta’s insurance sector, namely, the Malta Financial Services Authority.