Media Coverage

State-level insurance regulators have drawn a much brighter line for the alts fund manager market – making clear that most of the higher-yielding investments they have been custom building for insurer portfolios will no longer qualify for the same friendly capital treatment as lower-risk bonds. The broader shift came into view last week across a series of sessions at the National Association of Insurance Commissioners, or NAIC, summer meeting in Portland, Oregon.

"An ongoing, multi-year initiative by the NAIC to redefine what qualifies as a bond – and therefore gets more favorable treatment under strict rules governing insurer investment portfolios – tilted again this week.” Clearwater Analytics’ in-house NAIC expert Sabrina Wilson weighed in, adding, “the debate parameters are somewhat new for the NAIC because the bond definition is one of the group’s first attempts to apply a new principles-based regulatory approach more common in the U.K., instead of its more typical rules-based approach."

Gayatri Raman, president Europe and Asia, Clearwater Analytics also believes that “central to pursuing ESG investing strategies is being able to rely on clear and transparent ESG ratings. In this way, it all comes back to the information that sits beneath the ratings. Before anyone can incorporate ESG factors into their investing strategies, data needs to be highly available, high quality, and easy to track. Only then will investors be able to fully integrate these initiatives into their investment process."

According to Gayatri Raman, president for Europe and Asia at Clearwater Analytics, the research shows that performance is just one factor in asset owners’ evaluation of managers. “Client servicing and other value-added services are often the deciding factors that can tip the balance in hiring a manager,” said Raman.

Performance is a critical consideration for investors looking to hire asset managers, but it’s not the only factor that matters. Clearwater recently polled institutional asset owners to learn which asset manager attributes other than performance they consider to be most important.

Clearwater Analytics and LiquidityBook announced today that they will leverage their proven connectivity to offer clients an end-to-end portfolio investment and operations experience.

Municipals were little changed on the day while other markets continued to react to the Fed rate hike as U.S. Treasuries were stronger and equities sold off.

Steve Doire, head of strategic client and platform advisory at investment accounting and reporting firm Clearwater Analytics in Boston, thinks that key performance indicators for private markets are on the horizon.