Prudential was the largest seller of the retirement products known as variable annuities in the first six months of this year, while MetLife was No. 3, according to industry group Limra. Low interest rates can weigh on profits from the savings products while rising stocks can boost them.

The Standard & Poor's 500 Index rose 5.8 percent in the third quarter. The average yield on investment-grade corporate bonds fell to 2.87 percent on Sept. 30 from 3.37 percent as of June 30, according to Bank of America Merrill Lynch index data.

Goodwill Expense

MetLife reported a $1.6 billion goodwill impairment in its U.S. annuities unit in the third quarter as low interest rates reduced expectations for future profits. The New York-based insurer reported a net loss of $954 million as the impairment and derivatives weighed on results.

The write-off "does not bode well for the industry" and other insurers may report similar charges, Neil Strauss, a senior credit officer at Moody's Investors Service, wrote in a Nov. 5 report. "A prolonged period of low interest rates is bad for insurers, resulting not only in lower investment earnings and profit compression on spread-based products, but also higher reserve increases and meaningful writedowns of goodwill."

Prudential is in the final stage of a regulatory review to be designated a non-bank systemically important financial institution, the company said last month. Firms in that category could see dividends and buybacks curbed as regulators try to prevent a repeat of the 2008 financial crisis.

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