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This is a significant distinction as High Grade and High Yield bonds are traded by different trading desks and held by different investors. [6] For example, many pension funds and insurance companies are prohibited from holding more than a token amount of High Yield bonds (by internal rules or government regulation). [7]
The economic value of bond insurance to the governmental unit, agency, or other issuer of the insured bonds or other securities is the result of the savings on interest costs, which reflects the difference between yield payable on an insured bond and yield payable on the same bond if it was uninsured—which is generally higher.
A guaranteed investment contract (GIC) is a contract that guarantees repayment of principal and a fixed or floating interest rate for a predetermined period of time. Guaranteed investment contracts are typically issued by life insurance companies qualified for favorable tax status under the Internal Revenue Code (for example, 401(k) plans).
Investment-grade bonds have a low risk of default, which is the possibility of the issuer missing an interest payment. The entities issuing these bonds are generally trustworthy when it comes to ...
A reset option allows the contract holder to lock in investment gains if the market value of a segregated fund contract increases. This resets the contract’s deposit value to equal the greater of the deposit value or current market value, restarts the contract term, and extends the maturity date.
A bond is considered investment grade or IG if its credit rating is BBB− or higher by Fitch Ratings or S&P, or Baa3 or higher by Moody's, the so-called "Big Three" credit rating agencies. Generally they are bonds that are judged by the rating agency as likely enough to meet payment obligations that banks are allowed to invest in them.
US banks were permitted to hold only "investment grade" bonds, and it was the ratings of Fitch, Moody's, Poor's, and Standard that legally determined which bonds were which. State insurance regulators approved similar requirements in the following decades. [13]
Reinsurance sidecars, conventionally referred to as "sidecars", are financial structures that are created to allow investors to take on the risk and return of a group of insurance policies (a "book of business") written by an insurer or reinsurer (henceforth re/insurer) and earn the risk and return that arises from that business. A re/insurer ...