Capital Forbearance, Ex Ante Life Insurance Guaranty Schemes, and Interest Rate Uncertainty

Abstract

Insurance guaranty funds have been adopted in many countries to compensate policyholders for losses resulting from insurers’ insolvencies. In this article we focus on the risk-based premiums in ex ante insurance guaranty schemes since a preassessment mechanism could reduce the shareholders’ incentive to engage in risk-taking behavior. We derive the closed-form solutions of the risk-based premium charged by the insurance guaranty fund in a setting that incorporates financial leverage, asset allocation, early closure, and capital forbearance during the grace period. Most importantly, we assume that the interest rate is stochastic, and we find that the premium is underpriced if the uncertainty of the interest rate is neglected by the insurance guaranty fund. Moreover, the influence of stochastic interest rate for the premium is more significant when we consider the capital forbearance mechanism. The impacts of the key factors in our model that decide the fair premium of the guaranty fund are examined numerically. The results of our analysis could provide valuable insights for regulators in terms of revising regulatory policies and insurance guaranty schemes.