MetLife Increases Share Buyback Authorization to $1 Billion

MetLife Inc. has raised to $1 billion the amount it has set aside to buy back shares, the insurer's third increase since it resumed buying back its stock last year.

The nation's biggest life insurer by assets has been building capital ahead of expected stiffer federal capital rules.

Last September, a regulatory panel voted to propose labeling MetLife "systemically important," a designation that indicates the government believes the company could pose a risk to the broader economy during a crisis and would impose tougher rules, including larger capital cushions, on MetLife and bring it under the Federal Reserve oversight.

Four nonbanking companies have been designated as systemically important as well as banks with $50 billion in assets or more.

MetLife said it completed in the first quarter a $1 billion buyback program unveiled in December 2014.

Chief Executive Steven Kandarian told analysts on the company's first-quarter conference call that MetLife hadn't decided about additional repurchases this year, citing regulatory uncertainty.

Buybacks in the insurance industry are highly desired amid sluggish growth conditions.

Write to Maria Armental at [e-mail]

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(END) Dow Jones Newswires

September 22, 2015 16:35 ET (20:35 GMT)

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