The International Association of Insurance Supervisors published a newsletter update outlining recent work and forthcoming supervisory materials, with a strong focus on structural shifts in the life insurance sector and the widening insurance protection gap for natural catastrophe (NatCat) risks. On life insurance, the update highlights the IAIS’ monitoring of increased allocations to alternative assets and the growing use of asset-intensive reinsurance, and flags potential financial stability transmission channels including forced asset sales in stress, market disruption from mass recapture, and withdrawals from key lending markets following defaults or downgrades. An IAIS Issues Paper is expected to set out supervisory risks, observed supervisory responses and possible areas for enhancements to IAIS standards or supporting material. On NatCat protection gaps, the IAIS points to joint work with the World Bank for the G20 Sustainable Finance Working Group on actionable steps such as assessing NatCat exposure, applying risk-based and proportionate supervisory frameworks, improving risk awareness and incentives for risk reduction, and supporting insurance-based solutions including tailored public-private programmes. Internally, the IAIS Executive Committee approved revised committee mandates, agreed the scope and timing for a baseline self-assessment as the starting point for ComFrame Implementation Assessment, and approved a draft 2025 special topic edition of the Global Insurance Market Report on financial stability implications of NatCat protection gaps for publication in November. Next milestones include the IAIS Annual Conference in Tirana on 13-14 November with thematic sessions on life insurance structural shifts and insurance’s role in societal resilience, and further member-facing capacity building including a 4 December webinar on policyholder protection from a market conduct perspective and an 11 December session on climate scenarios and NatCat exposures.

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