On Lapse risk factors in Solvency II

Abstract: In the wake of the sub-prime crisis of 2008, the European Insurance and Occupational Pensions Authority issued the Solvency II directive, aiming at replacing the obsolete Solvency I framework by 2016. Among the quantitative requirements of Solvency II, a measure for an insurance firms solvency risk, the solvency risk capital, is found. It aims at establishing the amount of equity the company needs to hold to be able to meet its insurance obligations with a probability of 0.995 over the coming year. The SCR of a company is essentially built up by the SCR induced by a set of quantifiable risks. Among these, risks originating from the take up rate of contractual options, lapse risks, are included. In this thesis, the contractual options of a life insurer have been identified and risk factors aiming at capturing the risks arising are suggested. It has been concluded that a risk factor estimating the size of mass transfer events captures the risk arising through the resulting rescaling of the balance sheet. Further, a risk factor modeling the deviation of the Company's assumption for the yearly transfer rate is introduced to capture the risks induced by the characteristics of traditional life insurance and unit-linked insurance contracts upon transfer. The risk factors are modeled in a manner to introduce co-dependence with equity returns as well as interest rates of various durations and the model parameters are estimated using statistical methods for Norwegian transfer-frequency data obtained from Finans Norge. The univariate and multivariate properties of the models are investigated in a scenario setting and it is concluded the the suggested models provide predominantly plausible results for the mass-lapse risk factors. However, the performance of the models for the risk factors aiming at capturing deviations in the transfer assumptions are questionable, why two means of increasing its validity have been proposed.