Duke of Marmalade
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Far from me to fight other peoples' corners but I raised an eyebrow at an advert by Zurich in yesterday's Sunday Times. In graphic form it produced the following stats:
Zurich Group market cap 26bn, long term rating AA-
Great West 17bn; AA
Aviva 13bn; AA-
Standard Life 6bn; A+
BoI 3bn; A-
AIB 0.6bn; A-
IL&P 0.4bn; BBB+
This was an advert for pensions and PRSAs. The comparison between Zurich and IL&P is particularly misleading. ILAC, the life and pension company, is totally sound and the rating of its parent is totally irrelevant. In any event Zurich Ireland is not the same as Zurich Group.
I think it a retrograde move for life companies to start playing the "we're safer" competition especially when using parent group comparisons. The life industry should be acting in concert emphasising that life assurance is an entirely different ball game from banking. The former is broadly asset/liability matched, the whole essence of the latter is to run a massive asset/liability mismatch.
However, since no-one else has made this point maybe I'm being too fussy.
Zurich Group market cap 26bn, long term rating AA-
Great West 17bn; AA
Aviva 13bn; AA-
Standard Life 6bn; A+
BoI 3bn; A-
AIB 0.6bn; A-
IL&P 0.4bn; BBB+
This was an advert for pensions and PRSAs. The comparison between Zurich and IL&P is particularly misleading. ILAC, the life and pension company, is totally sound and the rating of its parent is totally irrelevant. In any event Zurich Ireland is not the same as Zurich Group.
I think it a retrograde move for life companies to start playing the "we're safer" competition especially when using parent group comparisons. The life industry should be acting in concert emphasising that life assurance is an entirely different ball game from banking. The former is broadly asset/liability matched, the whole essence of the latter is to run a massive asset/liability mismatch.
However, since no-one else has made this point maybe I'm being too fussy.