Insurance supervisors around the world outside the U.S. have urged companies they supervise to conserve capital during the COVID-19 crisis by limiting payouts to shareholders and bonuses to executives. 

At the same time, many supervisors have sought to help insurers avoid procyclical behavior by mitigating the impact of volatile market swings on the value of insurance company assets and, in turn, on measures of their capital adequacy. 

Insurance companies face unusual challenges during the COVID-19 crisis. This blog describes efforts by companies and their supervisors to:

• Reduce financial burdens on insurance customers, for example, by allowing them to defer premium payments. 
• Resolve the controversy over whether existing insurance coverage extends to businesses that have lost revenue during the crisis.