US exit strategies not indicative of wider trend

Recent strategic moves by a number of European insurers and reinsurers to divest their US life operations are not indicative of a wider trend.

Swiss Re sold its US life business earlier this year, while Generali and Aviva have confirmed they are in talks to sell their US life reinsurance businesses.

Concerns over a changing regulatory landscape in the US and a highly competitive marketplace have been cited as some of the reasons European insurers and reinsurers are making this move.

But Tim Goggin, partner in the financial institutions group of law firm Hogan Lovells, says he does not expect to see a flood of other European firms following suit.

He says the divestments that have happened so far have occurred because of strategic reasons specific to each company.

“I do not really see this as a trend,” he says.

“There are some European groups that have been involved in selling off US operations, for their own strategic reasons, but that there is not really a pattern of a dash for the exit from the US.”