Japanese insurance major, Meiji Yasuda Life Insurance plans to trim down its holdings in foreign bond investments in 2021, media reports said. The move by the insurer is part of its domestic bond investment boosting plan.
It is reported that the majority of the efforts will take place in the insurer’s US dollar-denominated assets. However, the company seeks to boost its exposure to Australian and Canadian dollar bonds to diversify. The insurer will ramp up its Japanese Yen based domestic holdings. It is reported that the insurer’s yen bond holdings have already been ramped up by JPY120 billion to JPY17.34 trillion.
Meiji Yasuda seeks to include domestic bonds in its portfolio by next year. The insurer will trim down its holdings of stocks for cutting down risks and rebalancing. It expects the market to make a correction in figures due to the second wave of the pandemic in Japan and is worried about the country’s recovery pace from the residual effects of the pandemic.
The insurer is the first company to launch a modern-day life insurance service in Japan. The company was incorporated in 1881 and it is committed to clean bonds in recent years. With that, it has injected capital in green bonds, sustainability bonds and strengthened its efforts in environmental, social and governance (ESG) implementation.
Global insurance companies across the world have been affected by the pandemic. However, the demand for insurance is expected to surge with the aftermath of the pandemic, media reports said.