Supporting non-life and life sectors is a key focus for 2025: De Monte, Lloyds Bank

During a recent interview with Reinsurance News, Christian De Monte, Lloyds Bank Corporate & Institutional Banking Head of Insurance and Group Subsidiaries, discussed what the firm’s main priorities are for its insurance business throughout 2025.

Readers may recall, that De Monte was named Managing Director, Head of Insurance and Group Subsidiaries of the firm in August 2024.

The firm’s focus for 2025 is twofold, according to De Monte, as the company is hoping to maintain its leadership position in providing funding, capital and risk management solutions to the non-life insurance sector, while also aiming to expand its proposition to support life insurers as the firm expands its ALM and markets offering.

“We see significant opportunities with life insurers, who, given their large balance sheets, have growing needs for risk management, hedging, and debt capital solutions. This is where we can leverage the strength of our Corporate & Institutional offering — particularly through our Financial Markets and Capital Markets businesses,” said De Monte.

“We are well-positioned to meet these needs, drawing on our deep expertise and proven capabilities in this space.”

Focusing on the life and non-life insurance space, we asked De Monte to name which key trends he expects to see across 2025.

“In the life insurance space in 2025, we expect to see a continued migration of pension liabilities from corporate balance sheets to those of insurers. This transition is driving growth in the life insurance client base and fueling demand for more sophisticated solutions in asset-liability management, derivatives, and capital management.”

Whereas, from a non-life perspective, a robust operating environment and continued influx of capital is expected, according to De Monte.

“From a non-life perspective, we’ll continue to a robust operating environment and continued influx of capital. Demand for non-life insurance will continue to increase, creating a favorable opportunity for insurers to capture growth and expand their portfolios. This dynamic will have a positive ripple effect on brokers, as healthier market conditions will enable them to increase their offering,” he added.

Staying on the life and non-life insurance space, De Monte addressed the main risks that the sector faces in 2025.

“Life insurers face increasing exposure to macroeconomic risks, given their large investment portfolios.

“For non-life insurers, inflation and natural catastrophes are the main risks. While some of the pressures seen in recent years have eased, inflation will remain a critical factor to watch in 2025,” he noted.

Focusing on the UK specifically, De Monte notes that the macroeconomic landscape is shifting, and insurers are closely monitoring the changes.

According to De Monte, interest rate volatility will be a key focus in 2025 as an inflationary environment can wind up increasing uncertainty around interest rates, which directly affects life insurers’ liabilities and investment returns.

“Next year, we’ll see continued discussions on how the government can incentivise UK insurers to invest domestically. Given the scale of their portfolios, there will be a focus on creating conditions that encourage investment, particularly to help bridge the gap in infrastructure and energy development,” he concludes.

This website states: The content on this site is sourced from the internet. If there is any infringement, please contact us and we will handle it promptly.