Indian insurers to shift ₹3.5 lakh crore in contracts to bond forwards for risk management

Unlike FRAs, bond forwards allow for actual bond delivery, offering insurers more effective tools to hedge against interest rate volatility.  India’s insurance companies are ready to embrace bond forwards agreements that start trading on Friday, the latest step to enhance the liquidity and sophistication of the nation’s $1.3 trillion government debt market. Insurance companies are…

How is the Pope elected?

There are elections and then there are elections. Why does this one then, garner so much interest and fanfare? It could be because the election to the Holy See (derived from the Latin sedes for seat), which gives the Roman Catholic church a new leader or Pope, has enough secrecy and intrigue to warrant…

Life inside Iraq’s ‘Forbidden Zone’

Simona Foltyn BBC World Service Reporting fromIraqi Kurdistan Phil Caller For generations Sherwen Sergeli and his family have made a living from his village’s land, but that’s now under threat Nestled in the mountains of Iraqi Kurdistan sits the picturesque village of Sergele. For generations villagers have made a living growing pomegranates, almonds and peaches…