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August 15, 2003 at 08:00 PM
NU Online News Service, Aug. 15, 2003, 4:25 p.m. EDT – The ING Groep N.V., Amsterdam, says it’s had a tough time maintaining spreads on U.S. fixed annuities and other products that offer U.S. customers guaranteed returns.
A spread is the difference between what a company pays holders of a fixed-rate product and what the company earns on the investments backing the product.
Interest rates have started to rise in the past few weeks, but the extremely low rates that prevailed during the second quarter forced many insurers to choose between holding fixed rates steady and accepting narrower spreads, or lowering rates fast enough to keep spreads wide.
At ING’s U.S. operations, during the first quarter, “declines in investment yields and spread compression decreased results by 224 million euros,” ING says in its second-quarter earnings release. “
ING let the dollar value of U.S. fixed annuity premiums fall 75% during the second quarter because of “continued focus on adherence to sound pricing practices to deliver satisfactory returns,” the company says. “Several fixed annuity products have been discontinued because of the low interest rate environment while others have been continued but with a reduced commission.”
