But the big Japanese insurers have little interest in buying them, because there are few easy cost-savings from layoffs or integrating their complicated information systems.
Connecticut Attorney General Richard Blumenthal says he is contemplating suits against brokers and insurers over bid-rigging and steering business to favored insurers against the interest of buyers.
While Korean insurers have a steady cash flow, slower economic growth and low interest rates pose threats, analysts said, because insurers need to pay the relatively high interest rates pledged to existing policy holders.
Securities issuers can adjust the risk in such bonds by requiring more cash to build up inside the security before it begins paying interest and insurers can reduce their risk by increasing the losses bondholders must bear before the policy kicks in.
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The USDA has also reduced interest rates on its emergency loan program and worked with the major crop insurers to allow farmers to forego interest payments on unpaid premiums until November.
Some of America's health insurers have already expressed an interest.
Mr. Slome said one of the trickiest elements for insurers to handle amid low interest rates is inflation protection for consumers, which many want to make sure the policies will cover the rising cost of nursing-home care.
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Now, ultralow interest rates are hurting insurers' investment returns, making it even harder to earn a profit on the policies.
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My vote for the most unjustly maligned financial sector stocks goes to the bond insurers, which guarantee principal repayment and interest for most municipal bonds.
Municipalities, potentially at least, could wind up paying more in interest for bonds if the insurers went away, although that's probably not going to happen because you've seen Warren Buffet and some other people step up and say hey, we'll take that nice, slow business.
With returns from bonds held back by low interest rates, U.K. insurers are becoming lenders as they look for investment alternatives.
That is far in excess of what insurers can earn, in Japan's low-interest-rate environment, from investing their premiums.
Interest groups abound--hospitals, drug companies, insurers, unions and providers, among them--and that's what has made change on this issue so difficult.
When interest rates are low, as they are now, insurers earn less on the bond investments so crucial to their overall profits.
Interest rates and the stockmarket are, obviously, beyond insurers' control.
The subsequent decline in interest rates and thus investment returns might well have driven many for profit insurers entirely out of the market.
According to the Association of Corporate Treasurers, the vast majority of interest rate derivatives involve financial companies, such as banks, investment firms, insurers and hedge funds.
Both insurers have structured their portfolios in a way that they would avoid getting hurt by a possible rise in interest rates.
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The insurers had sufficient assets and expertise to garner triple-A ratings, so the issuers could pay less interest on their bonds than they would have without the backing.
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