6.1. Admissible assets

An Insurer when, investing in assets, must consider whether, for the portfolio as a whole -

(a) its assets are sufficiently secure having regard to their capacity to protect their value and preserve their economic substance;
(b) its assets are sufficiently liquid to ensure that the Insurer is able to make payments to policyholders and creditors as they fall due
(c) its assets are held in the appropriate location for their availability; and
(d) its assets are sufficiently diversified subject to the nature, scale and complexity of the business.

(1) An Insurer must invest in a manner that is appropriate to the nature of its liabilities.

(2) In particular, an Insurer must:

(a) consider the extent to which the cash flows from its investments match the liability cash flows in both timing and amount and how these changes in varying conditions;
(b) consider the investment guarantees and embedded options that are contained in its policies;
(c) consider the currency or currencies of its liabilities and the extent to which they are matched by the currencies of the assets;
(d) manage conflicts of interest (e.g. between the Insurer’s corporate objectives and disclosed insurance policy objectives) to ensure assets are invested appropriately;
(e) for with-profits liabilities, hold an appropriate mix of assets to meet policyholders’ reasonable expectations; and
(f) if it is part of an insurance group, hold investments tailored to the characteristics of its liabilities and its needs and not be subject to undue influence from the wider objectives of the group.

(1) An Insurer must only invest in assets whose risks it can properly assess and manage.

(2) In particular, an Insurer must:

(a) ensure its investments, including those in collective investment funds, are sufficiently transparent and limit its investments to those where the associated risks of the asset can be properly managed by it (b) ensure that it understands all of the risks involved in an investment before any investments are undertaken;
(d) if it is able to look through the structure of an investment to the underlying assets, consider the risk characteristics of the underlying assets and how this affects the risk characteristics of the investments itself;
(e) if it is not able to look through the structure of an investment to the underlying assets, develop appropriate techniques to assess the risks associated with the investment.

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