Apollo CEO fires back at UBS chair over ‘systemic risk’ comments

Marc Rowan fired back Tuesday at UBS Chairman Colm Kelleher over comments Kelleher made that insurers shopping for better ratings are creating a “looming systemic risk” to global finance.

During the Hong Kong Monetary Authority’s Global Financial Leaders’ Investment Summit on Tuesday, Kelleher accused the insurance industry, particularly in the United States, of engaging in “ratings arbitrage” similar to what banks did with subprime loans in the run-up to the 2008 financial crisis. The Financial Times first reported the comments.

The insurance industry, with many companies backed by private equity firms, are investing heavily in illiquid private credit assets. Kelleher is just the latest figure to sound the alarm.

'Lack of effective regulation' cited

“If you look at the insurance business, there is a looming systemic risk coming through because of the lack of effective regulation,” he said.

When Rowan was asked about the comments during a third-quarter earnings call hosted by Apollo Global Management, he was ready. Athene Holding is a wholly owned subsidiary of Apollo, and Athene's annuity business is not only No. 1 in the industry, but a major driver of capital to Apollo.

“Colm is just wrong,” said Rowan, CEO of Apollo. Speaking of Athene, he added that “70% of our assets have two [or more] ratings. S&P, Moody's, and Fitch, each rate 50% of our fixed income assets."

Kelleher 'not wrong' to address systemic risk

In the banking industry, 100% of what is on a bank’s balance sheet is private credit, Rowan said. And almost nothing has a rating, he added.

“Colm is not wrong to think about and to talk about systemic risk,” Rowan said. “In the insurance industry, you have really strong players and really weak players. I do not believe that private letter ratings are where the focus should be.”

Offshore jurisdictions are a bigger problem, Rowan said, and as he has on other calls, he cited the Cayman Islands as a questionable landing spot for life insurance assets.

“We have offshore jurisdictions of significant size that have not produced the kind of regime that is consistent with U.S. ratings and U.S. state-based regulatory reform,” Rowan said.

It’s not the first controversy over U.S. ratings of life insurers.

In 2024, a pair of A-CAP Group insurance firms, Atlantic Coast Life Insurance and Sentinel Security Life Insurance, sued AM Best to prevent a downgrade of their financial strength ratings. The dispute centered on AM Best's evaluation of the insurers' exposure to the troubled private equity firm, 777 Partners.

Both sides eventually settled the lawsuit, with the terms remaining sealed.

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InsuranceNewsNet Senior Editor John Hilton has covered business and other beats in more than 20 years of daily journalism. John may be reached at [email protected]. Follow him on Twitter @INNJohnH.