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Participating Gics: Performance Attribution Analysis, Alec Stais, John P. Toohey Iii

Journal of Actuarial Practice (1993-2006)

The increasing popularity of participating GICs has created a need for an objective understanding of their performance. The fixed income attribution techniques are not adequate for measuring participating GIC performance because they typically restrict performance measurement to concepts such as duration management, sector rotation, and issue selection. We develop an attribution technique based on four components or effects that are helpful in explaining the changes in credited rates. They are the constant duration effect, the reinvestment effect, the cash flow effect, and the investment effect. The underlying mathematical approach to calculating these effects is presented along with examples.