Jurisdiction(s):
Ireland

Asset Intensive Reinsurance: regulatory scrutiny, risk transfer and creation, and governance—global trends, Solvency II, and PRA/EIOPA expectations for life insurers and annuity writers

Published on: 13 April 2026

Published by a LexisNexis Ireland - Banking & Financial Services expert

Legal News

Article summary

Supervisors worldwide have sharpened their focus on AIR, mirroring the market’s expanding AIR capacity and know‑how, together with a clear appetite among insurers to deploy it. The shared, baseline message remains an aligned one—holistic risk management. How this progresses over time will influence not only carriers seeking risk and capital solutions, but also reinsurers, asset managers, investors and SPVs participating in AIR structures.

Understanding AIR

All insurers will be alert to securing real and effective risk transfer to their reinsurers, as a core consideration. In conventional reinsurance, only liability risk is ceded (i.e. the risk of losses on underwritten liabilities). By contrast, AIR typically passes on two dimensions:

liability risk
asset risk—namely risks tied to the value of assets supporting the reinsured portfolio and business

AIR generally concerns asset‑intensive insurance, predominantly in the life and annuity arena in practice. It is often employed to curb exposure to lines that require insurers to hold large amounts of capital (e.g. the bulk purchase annuity and pension buy‑out market). AIR is typically collateralised by pools of assets managed under investment management guidelines.

Risk transfer v risk creation

AIR can underpin diversification into fresh products or markets, enable innovation and also support growth...

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