METLIFE INC (MET) Risk Factors

Recent key developments

Concrete developments — dated events, named agreements and instruments, legal proceedings — that METLIFE INC surfaced in its latest filing.

• MetLife, Inc. and MetLife Funding, Inc. maintain an unsecured revolving credit facility, and failure to comply with its conditions could result in a default.
• Lenders under the Credit Facility may fail to fund their lending commitments due to insolvency, illiquidity, or other reasons.
• MetLife, Inc. could be compelled to undergo FDIC liquidation if it becomes insolvent or is in danger of defaulting on its obligations, potentially imposing greater losses on stockholders and unsecured creditors than under the Bankruptcy Code.
• The New York insurance regulator’s annual SCL for year-end asset adequacy testing may impose unforeseen assumptions or requirements affecting our statutory capital and surplus.
• Terms of our preferred stock or subordinated debt securities may restrict our ability to pay dividends on or repurchase our common stock.
• Terms applicable to our Floating Rate Non-Cumulative Preferred Stock, Series A, and junior subordinated debt securities may prevent us from paying dividends or interest on those instruments.
• Insurance regulators may restrict dividends or other payments above certain amounts where their approval is required if they determine payments could be adverse to our policyholders or contractholders.
• Dividend and repatriation rules may limit our insurance subsidiaries’ dividends and other payments.
• Monetary transfer and foreign currency exchange rules may limit our insurance subsidiaries’ dividends and other payments.
• Closed block assets were established in connection with the MLIC demutualization. If closed block assets, cash flows, and revenue are insufficient to provide for guaranteed benefits of closed block policies, we must fund the shortfall. Assets of the closed block can never revert to the benefit of MLIC’s non-closed block policyholders or us as sole stockholder.
• The MetLife Policyholder Trust holds shares of MetLife, Inc. common stock. Trust beneficiary vote instructions can have disproportionate weight on certain fundamental corporate actions. The trustee votes all trust shares in proportion to received instructions. Termination of the trust and distribution of its shares could increase the number of stockholders with full voting rights.