Goldman Sachs Survey Shows Insurers Are Warming Up to Bitcoin and Crypto

Wall Street banking giant Goldman Sachs recently released the data from its annual insurance survey. Interestingly, for the first time, the survey had an outlook on cryptocurrencies.

After surveying nearly 328 top executives from insurance firms, 6% of the respondents said that they are already invested in crypto or looking to seek exposure. These respondents collectively handle almost half the $26 trillion global insurance industry.

Interestingly, most of the insurers showing interest in crypto are from America. “The vast majority of insurers are not considering investing in cryptocurrencies,” according to the report. “American insurers are slightly more interested”. Goldman Sachs’ global head of insurance asset management and liquidity, Mike Siegel said:

“We had respondents that represented over $13 trillion worth of assets, which is about half of the global industry’s assets. So, we think that the survey is very representative of what the industry is thinking.”

However, cryptocurrencies weren’t the most preferred option. They came fifth in choice after private equity, commodities, and emerging market equities. Interestingly, they stood above corporate loans, traditional banking loans, finance companies, and debt funds. Recently, even Wall Street giant JPMorgan said that they would prefer investing in cryptocurrencies over real estate.

Companies Interested to Know About Bitcoin and Crypto

The recent survey from Goldman Sachs shows that insurance firms, however, show interest in learning about crypto and the supporting infrastructure. Siegel said:

“If this becomes a transactable currency, they want to have the ability down the road to denominate policies in crypto. And also accept premium in crypto, just like they do in, say, dollars or yen or sterling or euro”.

It will be interesting to see if insurers start accepting crypto payments anytime in the future. Of course, that will be subject to how regulatory policies in the U.S. and worldwide take shape. While insurers have been a bit reluctant about crypto, they are optimistic about the underlying blockchain technology. The use of blockchain will only bring greater transparency to this sector.