A tumultuous year for the life settlement industry is not taking a holiday after that Goldman Sachs announced that will drop its “mortality” index.
According to a report from Reuters, the investment bank will end its relationship with the Goldman QXX index, which tracked 46,290 “de-identified” lives that were part of a life settlement pool run by Georgia-based AVS Underwriting LLC.
The web site for QXX has been taken down, although a page containing recent index changes remains available.
Goldman did not publish an announcement regarding dropping the QXX.
Created in 2007, the QXX was marketed as “the first index that will allow market participants to measure, manage, and trade exposure to longevity and mortality risks,” according to a press release.
The withdrawal of Goldman may hamper the efforts of some market participants to create so called “mortality derivatives” and synthetic life settlement pools that rely on a tradable index.