Industry research
Each financial sector meets risk through different balance sheets, contracts and rules. Industry research at The Global Risks Alliance (GRA) analyses each sector on its own terms: insurance, banking, asset management, capital markets, private equity, institutional funds, development finance, sovereign capital, fintech and financial regulation. Analyses are kept distinct so that evidence for one sector is not stretched to another. They are listed here as they pass review and are released. This page belongs to research and intelligence.
- Institution
- The Global Risks Alliance (GRA)
- Service level
- R0: information and enquiries
Evidence grading
Industry research · Review wave 2
Certainty by criterion
0 low to 100 high
Higher is more certain. Values are placeholders.
Review queue
- R-1Exposures aggregatedsecond reviewer5 d
- R-2Readiness dossiers in progresssecond reviewer5 d
- R-3Triggers monitoredsecond reviewer6 d
GRA · Evidence gradingEvidence grading, in outline: domain structure with placeholder names and illustrative values, not a record.
The short answer.
GRA industry research analyses each financial sector on its own terms: insurance, banking, asset management, capital markets, private equity, institutional funds, development finance, sovereign capital, fintech and financial regulation. Analyses stay distinct, describe a sector as a whole and never assess, rank or recommend any firm or constitute investment research.
Draft to published version.
Fig.How a finding is reviewed before it is published. Design, not a record.
Financial centres and urban exposure in the Rhine and the Alps.
The cities where people, assets and financial activity concentrate, shown for the Rhine and the Alps as an example geography for this subject.
Ten sectors, ten distinct analyses.
| Sector | Platform | Typical research question |
|---|---|---|
| Insurance | Insurance Nexus | Where is loss uninsured, and how does accumulation build? |
| Banking | Banking Nexus | How do physical and operational shocks reach credit portfolios? |
| Asset management | Asset Management Nexus | What does scenario evidence mean for each manager's own analysis? |
| Capital markets | Capital Markets Nexus | How does disruption propagate through market structure? |
| Private equity | Private Equity Nexus | Which operational and supply-chain questions can owners ask of a holding? |
| Institutional funds | Institutional Funds Nexus | How do long-horizon liabilities meet long-horizon risk? |
| Development finance | Development Finance Nexus | What evidence do resilience programmes need for lender diligence? |
| Sovereign capital | Sovereign Capital Nexus | How do shocks reach public balance sheets? |
| Fintech | Fintech Nexus | Where do new technologies concentrate risk? |
| Financial regulation | Financial Regulation Nexus | What evidence may supervisors draw on for systemic risk? |
Each sector report names its own standard set.
| Sector | Primary standards |
|---|---|
| Insurance | IAIS ICPs and ICS, Solvency II, IFRS 17 |
| Banking | Basel Framework, BCBS climate principles and disclosure framework |
| Asset management and funds | IOSCO principles, liquidity recommendations, IFRS S2, PCAF |
| Pensions | OECD core principles, national funding rules |
| Market infrastructure | CPMI-IOSCO PFMI |
| Development finance | IFC Performance Standards, Equator Principles |
| Sovereign wealth | Santiago Principles |
| Fintech and payments | FATF Recommendations, PFMI, DORA |
One sector's evidence is not another's.
- A loss that is a claim for an insurer is a credit event for a bank and a valuation change for an investor
- Time horizons differ, from overnight liquidity to pension liabilities that run for decades
- Data availability and reporting rules differ by sector and jurisdiction
- Combining sectors without care can double-count losses or hide transfers between them
Cross-sector questions are handled explicitly, with transfers between sectors traced rather than assumed.
What each sector report is designed to contain.
- 01
Exposure channels
How real-economy shocks reach the sector's balance sheets, with evidence labels.
- 02
Evidence state
What is observed, estimated, modelled or unknown, and the sources for each.
- 03
Open questions
What institutions in the sector would still need to know, written down openly.
- 04
Limits
Where the analysis does not apply, and what it does not assess.
Industry-wide, never firm-specific.
Industry research describes a sector as a whole. It never assesses, ranks or recommends any firm, and it is not investment research. Sector analyses may inform the Global Sector Risk and Resilience series of Nexus Reports, stewarded by The Global Centre for Risk and Innovation (GCRI). See also the specialist financial network and models and professional methods.
Terms used on this page.
Each term as this page uses it. Where a standard-setting body defines the term, the wording follows that body.
| Term | Definition |
|---|---|
| Concentration risk | The risk from dependence on a single provider or a small number of providers. |
| Investment advice | A personal recommendation on investments, a regulated activity in most jurisdictions. |
| Peer benchmarking | Judging a fund's performance against similar funds, which encourages similar allocations. |
Where this page's references lead.
The bodies and documents this page is read against. Status and editions change; each link goes to the issuing body.
- IAIS Insurance Core Principles and ComFrame, including the Insurance Capital Standard (adopted December 2024)
- Basel Framework (consolidated standards)
- IOSCO Objectives and Principles of Securities Regulation
- CPMI-IOSCO Principles for Financial Market Infrastructures (2012) and cyber resilience guidance (2016)
- IFC Performance Standards on Environmental and Social Sustainability (2012)
- Santiago Principles: Generally Accepted Principles and Practices for sovereign wealth funds (IFSWF)
- FATF Recommendations, including revised Recommendation 16 on payment transparency (June 2025; implementation by end-2030)
Questions and answers.
Can a firm commission a sector report?
Are sector reports available now?
Do sector reports name companies?
How do I suggest a sector question?
Around GRA.
Start with an enquiry.
The current service level is R0: information and enquiries. An enquiry receives a reference and names the next step; applications, payments, compute allocations and registrations open only when their team, terms and review capacity exist.