In the alternatives space alone, the average allocation by insurance companies, as a percentage of their assets under management, has in fact already increased from 10% to 15% between 2011 and 20135. 4  “Asian Insurers: Adapting Investment Strategies to a Changing World”, BlackRock in conjunction with the Economist Intelligence Unit, Sep 2013. 5  Preqin’s 2013 Global Alternatives Report. BIS central bankers’ speeches  3  15. A recent Goldman Sachs Insurance Asset Management survey reports that nearly half of Asian insurers are looking to raise their allocation to higher yielding assets. Like expected returns, risks – market, credit, liquidity, and legal to name a few – from investing in these newer asset classes will also be higher. There is no free lunch. Insurers’ risk profiles will be distributed across a wider and more complex spectrum of asset classes. This will call for more sophisticated and robust management of individual investment risks, as well as the correlation between the range of investment risks within a more diversified and complex portfolio. 16. The risk management deficiencies highlighted by the global financial crisis and recent tail events, have raised the bar in all areas of risk management. As a result, risk management has now been elevated from a mere control function under the responsibility of the Chief Risk Officer, to a strategic role that comes under the direct oversight of the insurer’s Board and senior management. 17.
One of the first means of paying tribute to him that occurred to us was to publish a book with a broad selection of these texts. On reading it you will see how many of the subjects he tackled over the course of his term of office, from 1992 to 2000, remain fully valid in today’s economic debate. Along with the publication of this book we decided to hold this Conference as a tribute, structuring it around a discussion of the pivotal areas of Ángel Rojo’s economic thought. We are joined by a select group of speakers whose common denominator, in addition to their professional standing, is to have shared concerns and experiences with him at different times in his life and in his various fields of academic, institutional, domestic and international activity. The Conference comprises four sessions that turn on subjects which largely reflect the main areas in which he developed his body of academic work and his best economic policy contributions. The first session addresses monetary and fiscal policy; the second, the challenges of European integration; and the third and fourth, the Spanish economy and the role Ángel Rojo played in the design of Spain’s economic policy. Ángel Rojo’s main achievement as Governor was his contribution to Spain joining the euro as a founding member.