BaFin Pressures German Insurers Over Private Credit Risks at 40 Firms

1 articles · Updated · Bloomberg · May 12

BaFin will intensify pressure on German insurers to fix shortcomings in their private credit investments, widening scrutiny of an asset class increasingly sold to retail clients.
Almost 40 insurers hold more than 35% of their portfolios in alternative investments, and a few have more than 25% invested in private debt, BaFin President Mark Branson said.
The intervention signals rising concern that insurers' exposure to less transparent, harder-to-value assets could create risk as private credit spreads beyond institutional investors.
For Germany's insurance sector, the push adds regulatory pressure to tighten oversight of alternative assets as private debt becomes a larger share of portfolios.

As German regulators pressure insurers, what hidden risks are lurking in insurance company portfolios worldwide?

Is the $2 trillion private credit boom, now showing cracks, about to trigger the next global financial crisis?