Risk During the Financial Crisis: The Role of the Insurance Industry

The risk of financial institutions has become one of the primary areas of focus in both regulation and research in the post-mortem of the recent financial crisis. We analyze the security risk of financial services firms, focusing on the different sub-industries of insurance companies. We find that the returns and risk associated with the different types of insurance companies respond differently to this major disruption, which has implications for the regulation of risk. We also find that the relationship between financial services industries has changed following the financial crisis.