Insurer to join LLMA members such as Axa and Deutsche Bank

Aviva has joined the Life & Longevity Markets Association (LLMA) as its eleventh member.

The LLMA was formed to promote development of a liquid traded market in longevity and mortality-related risk, of the type that exists for insurance linked securities (ILS), and other large trend risks like interest rates and inflation.

The other LLMA members are AXA, Deutsche Bank, J.P. Morgan, Legal & General, Morgan Stanley, Pension Corporation, Prudential PLC, RBS, Swiss Re and UBS.

Since launch the association has been developing consistent standards, methodologies and benchmarks to help build a liquid trading market, including the publication of standard frameworks for longevity, and a set of seven technical documents that provide the basis for indexed longevity transactions.

Craig Thornton, chief risk officer at Aviva, said: "Aviva has watched with great interest the considerable work done by the LLMA to bring forward a liquid traded longevity market since its launch. We believe that we can only become an active participant in such a market if we are involved in its genesis, and for that reason we have made the considerable commitment of taking on full membership of the LLMA."