(Bloomberg) — Chris Fischer Hirs, the head of Allianz SE's specialty insurance business, said he welcomes the growing participation of Wall Street in the insurance industry as an opportunity, not a threat.
"Hedge funds bring capacity to the market," Fischer Hirs said in an interview in Rio de Janeiro Wednesday. "Do they bring expertise? No. And what are we good at? We're good at underwriting risk."
Pension and hedge funds have been plowing money into weather-related bets and other insurance risks as they seek wagers that aren't correlated with financial markets. The ventures also offer a chance for better returns than what's available on most debt investments in low-yield countries such as the U.S.
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