Life insurers show resilience to private-credit stress in S&P Global Ratings tests
Updated
Updated · The Wall Street Journal · Apr 29
Life insurers show resilience to private-credit stress in S&P Global Ratings tests
7 articles · Updated · The Wall Street Journal · Apr 29
S&P's stress tests revealed that even under a scenario with junk-rated debt defaulting at twice 2008-09 rates, only two life insurers would likely face downgrades.
About half of the insurers would experience moderate pressure on their credit ratings, while the majority remain well-prepared for private-credit volatility.
The tests focused on privately placed corporate loans and structured non-mortgage finance bonds, using conservative assumptions about default losses but excluding stress in public bonds.
With 'ratings shopping' on the rise, can we trust the reported safety of insurers' private debt?
If private credit valuations are 'sketchy,' what is the true financial health of life insurers today?
Are regulators moving fast enough to prevent a crisis in the opaque private credit market?
Is the private credit boom creating a hidden systemic risk similar to the 2008 subprime crisis?
How will AI's disruption of the software industry impact the $2 trillion private credit market?