The COVID-19 crisis has major impacted the insurance industry in three dimensions: business operations, underwriting and claims and insurance investing. This paper will analyse the implications for insurance investing. We start by showing the impact of the severe drawdown in the equity markets during the initial phase of the crisis in March/April 2020 on a typical insurer’s balance sheet. We then look at the effects of the dislocations in fixed income, which make up the largest share of exposures in insurance companies’ portfolios. We track the performance of investment grade credit during the year while paying special attention to the impact of downgrades on insurers’ solvency capital. We finally study alternative investments with particular focus on private markets. These investments are a faster-growing part of insurance companies’ exposures and pose specific challenges as they are complex, more difficult to access, have limited liquidity and are often harder to price, especially during times of high market volatility. Yet, compared to their equivalent public market exposures, private investments provide additional income, which allows insurers to charge lower rates on their products to policyholders. As the sophistication and complexity of investments keep growing, companies as well as regulators need to find a good balance between policyholder protection and market efficiency.

COVID-19 危机在三个方面对保险业产生了重大影响：业务运营、承保和索赔以及保险投资。本文将分析对保险投资的影响。我们首先展示了在 2020 年 3 月/2020 年 4 月危机的初始阶段股票市场严重下跌对典型保险公司资产负债表的影响。然后，我们研究了固定收益错位的影响，这些错位在保险公司的投资组合中占风险敞口的最大份额。我们跟踪投资级信用在年内的表现，同时特别关注降级对保险公司偿付能力资本的影响。最后，我们研究了另类投资，特别关注私人市场。这些投资是保险公司风险敞口中增长较快的部分，并且由于它们复杂、更难获得、流动性有限且通常更难以定价，特别是在市场高度波动的时期，因此构成了特定挑战。然而，与同等的公开市场风险敞口相比，私人投资提供了额外的收入，这使得保险公司可以向投保人收取较低的产品费率。随着投资的复杂性和复杂性不断增长，公司和监管机构需要在投保人保护和市场效率之间找到良好的平衡。与同等的公开市场风险敞口相比，私人投资提供了额外的收入，这使保险公司能够向投保人收取较低的产品费率。随着投资的复杂性和复杂性不断增长，公司和监管机构需要在投保人保护和市场效率之间找到良好的平衡。与同等的公开市场风险敞口相比，私人投资提供了额外的收入，这使保险公司能够向投保人收取较低的产品费率。随着投资的复杂性和复杂性不断增长，公司和监管机构需要在投保人保护和市场效率之间找到良好的平衡。