Large Insurers Are Still Involved in Derivatives, Warns ‘Wall Street on Parade’

Oct. 4, 2019 (EIRNS)—Pam and Russ Martens, who run the “Wall Street on Parade” website and are pro-Glass-Steagall, warn about the state of big insurance companies, which have never stopped investing in derivatives despite the 2008 meltdown, and the bailout of AIG because of that. In the last two days, the Dow Jones has dropped 838 points, but big banks and insurers have dropped more dramatically. That is because big insurers are counterparts to big banks in derivative trades, they write.

“We know which insurance companies are making risky derivative gambles with the mega banks because the 2017 Financial Stability Report from the Office of Financial Research, the Federal agency created under the 2010 Dodd-Frank reform legislation, named them. Those U.S. insurers are: Ameriprise Financial, Hartford Financial Services Group, Lincoln National Corp., Prudential Financial, Voya Financial, MetLife and—as a commentary on the failure of Dodd-Frank—AIG is still in the game.

“Over the past two trading days this is how those seven insurers have fared: Lincoln National Corp. has lost a whopping 8.4%; Ameriprise Financial has given up 8.24%; MetLife fell 6.5%; Voya Financial has lost 6.3%; Prudential Financial was down 6%; while Hartford Financial Services Group and AIG fell a more modest 4%.”