An ins. co. discussing long-term investments could be about what is called the "matching (assets) rule" in English or
règle de congruence des actifs in French. Look for "matching" in this document:
http://www.oecd.org/pensions/private-pensions/2401884.pdf <p>The gist is that insurers must be able to indemnify their insured at any time during the whole duration of the insured's policy. And to do so, their assets must always match their liabilities: "The identification of the risk of a mismatch between assets and liabilities... one of the most critical risks to which insurers writing long-term business are exposed to... their investment activity needs to be guided by its purpose, which is to ensure that claims can be met when they are due." (
https://people.math.ethz.ch/~embrecht/ftp/SRIF2.pdf)<p>...Such liabilities can be long-term. This is particularly true of life insurance (several decades per person) and of liability insurance. In other words, insurers exposed to long-term liabilities must invest in long-term investments legally to meet their long-term commitments. This is what I think the sentence is referring to.<p>