The policies with investments in shares of Russian companies will be most affected, said Alexei Bredikhin, director of the group of ratings of financial institutions ACRA. According to him, there are still more investments in international markets, raw materials, etc. And these investments are protected from the Russian stock market risks. To his mind, in such an unpleasant situation related to sanctions, insurers, pursuing a reasonable investment policy and meeting the Russian Central Bank norms, should cope. It will get worse, he added, if the situation becomes more intense and turns into a credit crisis.
Optimism of Mr. Bredikhin is supported by the head of investment life insurance "Sberbank Life Insurance" Sergei Yegorov. According to him, investments in investment life insurance are diversified, and more than 80% of contracts are investments in various international markets and assets not related to the Russian stock market. "In this regard, we believe that the situation will not have a significant impact on investment life insurance" he said.
But even the clients whose investment life insurance policies are more connected with the Russian stock market may also not worry much, says General Director of "Yugoria-Zhizn" Insurance Group Armen Mkhitaryan. "It is important to note that investment life insurance means protection of invested funds regardless of market turmoil. Therefore, customers, whose profitability is tied to the Russian stock market, can be sure that they will not get a negative result from fall of stocks", he said.
In any case, according to the contracts, the insurance companies guarantee their clients a 100% return on invested capital, reminded Mikhail Rabinovich, the head of asset management department of IC "Soglasie-Vita". This is the basis of investment life insurance. "Investment strategies are often used with exposure to Western financial markets, all factors for customers are positive," the expert added.
In case with investment life insurance policies with investments in domestic markets, a temporary "drawdown" will affect customers who will get additional investment income now, said Maxim Reshetnyak, the Head of Uralsib-Life product development team, in his interview with ASN. However, on a long-term horizon any losses are usually retrieved by the market.
"Typically, investment portfolios of insurers include shares in a limited proportion. Some insurers generally refrain from investing in shares. Therefore, for most companies, the effect of reducing the value of shares will not be critical so far", says Alexei Bredikhin. Much greater problems may arise in the event of a decline in the value of debt instruments and a threat to the creditworthiness of borrowers and banks, he adds.
In general, experts recommend to not rush with conclusions, since it is still unclear whether the trend with a decline in the value of most securities on the Russian stock market is fundamental.
