Will insurers become the new banks?

Many banks are looking to offload non-core investments to comply with Basel III rules on capital ratios, presenting opportunities for yield-hungry insurers, say BlackRock and Société Générale. “The sale of these capital-hungry investments helps banks improve their capital ratios and insurers get access to the illiquidity premium they crave with correspondingly attractive yields,” notes David Lomas, head of BlackRock's global financial institutions group in New York. Insurers wor…