Document Properties
- Publication Type: Advisory
- Category: Capital
- Date: December 2008
- Audiences: Life
This Advisory clarifies OSFI policy with respect to recognition of hedge
contracts in the determination of the segregated fund guarantee regulatory
capital requirement for life insurance companies. It complements the
following OSFI guidance:
Definitions
For the purposes of this advisory, the term hedge contracts is
defined as follows:
- Hedge Contracts:
Positions
in financial instruments or derivatives, such as forwards, futures, swaps
or options, whether purchased or sold, undertaken through a securities
exchange or over-the-counter primarily for the purpose of managing or
mitigating segregated fund guarantee risk.
Policy on the Recognition of Hedge Contracts
OSFI encourages companies with material segregated fund guarantee risk
exposure to develop and implement plans for managing this risk. These
plans should take into consideration the company’s appetite for segregated
fund guarantee risk and include mechanisms for monitoring and mitigating
this risk.
There are a number of different strategies for managing and mitigating
segregated fund guarantee risk, among them strategies that involve the use
of hedge contracts. Although companies may wish to implement, for their
own internal risk management purposes, forward- looking strategies that
involve the anticipated use of hedge contracts, the only hedge contracts
that will be considered for recognition in the determination of a
company’s segregated fund guarantee regulatory capital requirement are the
hedge contracts that the company holds as of the valuation date. Hedge
contracts that the company has not yet entered into as of the valuation
date will not be recognized in the determination of the company’s
segregated fund guarantee regulatory capital requirement. In particular,
no recognition will be given for:
-
anticipated rollovers or renewals of hedge contracts,
-
hedge contracts expected to be entered into subsequent to the
valuation date for the purpose of rebalancing a hedge position,
-
hedge contracts that the company’s risk management policy states would
be entered into contingent upon the occurrence of particular future
events, or
-
any form of management action subsequent to the valuation date.
Explicit approval from OSFI is required before a company may recognize any
hedge contracts in the determination of the company’s segregated fund
guarantee regulatory capital requirement. Updated guidance on the
requirements that a company must meet to be eligible for approval and
information on the application procedure will be provided in a subsequent
notice.
The amount of recognition that a company’s hedge contracts receive will be
determined at the time of approval and will depend in part on:
-
the derivative or financial instruments used to implement the hedge,
e.g., options, futures, swaps, etc, and their relationship to the
underlying segregated fund guarantee risk,
-
the residual risks, i.e., risks that are not hedged,
-
the demonstrated effectiveness of the hedge contracts,
-
new risks introduced as a result of the hedge contracts, and
-
the effectiveness of the company’s overall risk management
infrastructure.
Over-the-counter hedge contracts will remain subject to the charges for counterparty credit risk specified in chapter 4 of the LICAT guideline.
In the absence of approval, the provisions of section 5.2.3 of the LICAT guideline will continue to apply. Note that according to the provisions of section 5.2.3, no additional capital for equity market risk is required for purchased put options that clearly serve to hedge the company’s segregated fund guarantee risk. Moreover, where a company has both long and short positions in exactly the same underlying equity security, the capital requirement under section 5.2.4 is based on the company’s net position in the equity security.