The ratings agencies have bounced Europe’s major insurers’ share values further down the slippery slope with credit rating cuts. Moody’s cut ING from Aa2 to Aa3 last week, and S&P’s dropped Aegon and Aviva to A+. Practically every major European insurer has now taken a ratings drop as a result of falling profits.

They all had high equities exposures, and that’s now regarded as a fatal flaw. Even the heavenly twins of reinsurance have been affected. Last Thursday Munich Re wrote down its assets by more than $10 billion and copped a ratings drop from AA+ to AA-.

Swiss Re followed suit with a $4.6 writedown. CEO John Coomber said last week that the equities markets haven’t fallen this dramatically since the start of World War II. Swiss Re also cut its dividend, its first cut since the 1906 San Francisco earthquake.