How a Global Insurer Strengthened Market Risk Oversight for its General Account Funds
Manulife enhances its fund look-through analytics and stress testing capabilities
OverviewScaling Risk Oversight Across a Complex Insurance Balance Sheet
Toronto-based Manulife1 operates one of the world’s largest insurance general accounts with CAD 460 billion in AUM,2 overseeing a diversified portfolio of public and private assets across multiple jurisdictions. As regulatory expectations, market volatility, and portfolio complexity increased, the company sought to further strengthen its ability to monitor and assess investment risks across the balance sheet.
As an insurer regulated by Canada’s Office of the Superintendent of Financial Institutions, Manulife must maintain capital adequacy under the Life Insurance Capital Adequacy Test (LICAT) framework.
Pooled investment such as exchanged-traded funds (ETFs) received more conservative capital treatment if there is limited visibility to underlying holdings.
As portfolio complexity and regulatory expectations increased, Manulife evolved its market risk oversight approach from periodic, largely manual risk assessment toward a more continuous, transparent, and analytics-driven framework. The adoption of MSCI BarraOne as one of its analytical platforms supports this broader modernization journey.
By implementing MSCI BarraOne, Manulife has enhanced its risk analytics capabilities by supporting holding-level transparency used primarily to support interest rate risk and credit risk assessments. The multi-asset factor model and private credit risk models support a consistent stress testing framework and ongoing monitoring of on-balance sheet and off-balance sheet exposures. The framework enables risk professionals to focus on insight generation rather than manual data preparation. It reflects Manulife's broader vision to support the next generation of financial risk managers in the insurance industry.
in insurance general funds assets under management (AUM) at Manulife3
with enhanced holding-level risk analytics through MSCI models.4
of risk data automatically ingested daily, including 540+ fund look-through analytics.5
“As investment portfolios become more complex and market conditions evolve more rapidly, effective independent review and challenge require a transparent, timely and consistent view of risk. Manulife has evolved its market risk oversight approach through enhanced holdings-level transparency, stress testing and risk monitoring capabilities, enabling more informed risk oversight and challenge across the business.”
Jeanine Kwong, Head of Financial Risk Digital Enablement, Manulife
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Disclaimer
Manulife is a client of MSCI Inc. and consented to its inclusion in this case study. Manulife did not receive any compensation in connection with this article. Any results achieved by Manulife are specific to its use case and are cited for informational purposes only. Other investors may not experience similar outcomes.
1 Manulife is a client of MSCI Inc. and consented to its inclusion in this case study. Manulife did not receive any compensation in connection with this article. Any results achieved by Manulife are specific to its use case and are cited for informational purposes only. Other investors may not experience similar outcomes.
2 As of Dec. 31, 2025.
3 As of Mar. 31, 2026.
4 As of Mar. 31, 2026.
5 As of Mar. 31, 2026.
6 Image is for illustrative purposes only. As of July 31, 2026.
7 As of March 31, 2026.