Ratings of insurers in the Middle East will be constrained over the next year or more because of the "significantly concentrated and highly correlated investments in the local real-estate and property markets", according to rating agency Moody's in its report "Investment Risk Weighs on Financial Strength of Middle East Insurers". Moody's expects these constraints to be relaxed eventually "as more sophisticated regulatory supervision and enterprise risk management techniques become embedded in the sector". Assistant vice-president and analyst David Masters said that "investment risk typically remains the pre-eminent credit risk for insurers in the Middle East region, despite the fact that these insurers typically hold very strong levels of capitalization relative to their underwriting risk". Part of the problem, said Mr Masters, was that there was a "relative lack of other traditional asset classes in the Middle East region". However, Mr Masters did note that "insurance regulators in the region are increasingly embedding prudential insurance regulatory supervision philosophies into their monitoring of local insurance companies". This, plus a possible rebound in bank deposit rates, "might moderate these pressures over the medium term".