Equity Protection Swaps: A New Type of Investment Insurance for Holders of Superannuation Accounts

Fuente: arXiv
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Autores principales: Xu, Huansang, Liu, Ruyi, Rutkowski, Marek
Formato: Preprint
Publicado: 2023
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author Xu, Huansang
Liu, Ruyi
Rutkowski, Marek
author_facet Xu, Huansang
Liu, Ruyi
Rutkowski, Marek
contents We propose to develop a new class of investment insurance products for holders of superannuation accounts in Australia, which we tentatively call equity protection swaps (EPSs). An EPS is a standalone financial derivative, which is reminiscent of a total return swap but also shares some features with the variable annuity known as the registered index-linked annuity (RILA). The buyer of an EPS obtains partial protection against losses on a reference portfolio and, in exchange, agrees to share portfolio gains with the insurance provider if the realized return on a reference portfolio is above a predetermined threshold. Formally, a generic EPS consists of protection and fee legs with participation rates agreed upon by the provider and holder. A general fair pricing formula for an EPS is obtained by considering a static hedging strategy based on traded European options. It is argued that to make the contract appealing to holders, the provider should select appropriate protection and fee rates that make the fair premium at the contract's inception equal to zero. A numerical study based on the Black-Scholes model and empirical tests based on market data for S\&P~500 and S&P/ASX~200 indices for 2020-2022 demonstrates the benefits of an EPS as an efficient investment insurance tool for superannuation accounts.
format Preprint
id arxiv_https___arxiv_org_abs_2305_09472
institution arXiv
publishDate 2023
record_format arxiv
spellingShingle Equity Protection Swaps: A New Type of Investment Insurance for Holders of Superannuation Accounts
Xu, Huansang
Liu, Ruyi
Rutkowski, Marek
Pricing of Securities
91G20, 91G60
We propose to develop a new class of investment insurance products for holders of superannuation accounts in Australia, which we tentatively call equity protection swaps (EPSs). An EPS is a standalone financial derivative, which is reminiscent of a total return swap but also shares some features with the variable annuity known as the registered index-linked annuity (RILA). The buyer of an EPS obtains partial protection against losses on a reference portfolio and, in exchange, agrees to share portfolio gains with the insurance provider if the realized return on a reference portfolio is above a predetermined threshold. Formally, a generic EPS consists of protection and fee legs with participation rates agreed upon by the provider and holder. A general fair pricing formula for an EPS is obtained by considering a static hedging strategy based on traded European options. It is argued that to make the contract appealing to holders, the provider should select appropriate protection and fee rates that make the fair premium at the contract's inception equal to zero. A numerical study based on the Black-Scholes model and empirical tests based on market data for S\&P~500 and S&P/ASX~200 indices for 2020-2022 demonstrates the benefits of an EPS as an efficient investment insurance tool for superannuation accounts.
title Equity Protection Swaps: A New Type of Investment Insurance for Holders of Superannuation Accounts
topic Pricing of Securities
91G20, 91G60
url https://arxiv.org/abs/2305.09472