Archive for March, 2017

A new, regional disaster risk financing project that supports and builds on the experience of the Pacific Catastrophe Risk Assessment and Financing Initiative (PCRAFI) has been launched in Fiji, significantly expanding regional collaboration and financial resilience.

Insurance and reinsurance industry losses from severe thunderstorms and convective weather in the U.S. continue to mount, with another period of storm activity between 26th and 30th March 2017 likely to contribute another $1 billion to economic and insured losses, according to Aon’s Impact Forecasting.

Coupon price guidance for the new $100 million Pelican IV Re Ltd. (Series 2017-1) catastrophe bond, which is sponsored by Louisiana Citizens Property Insurance Corporation, has been lowered to below the launch level, as cat bond investors continue to demonstrate their appetite for new issues.

Cyclone Debbie, which struck the northern Queensland coastline with wind gusts of up to 260kph, is thought to have caused an insurance industry loss somewhere around the level seen with 2011’s Yasi, which could be as much as AU$1.4 billion, but reinsurance arrangements will protect primary insurers.

Willis Capital Markets & Advisory (WCMA), the insurance & reinsurance capital markets, investment banking and insurance-linked securities (ILS) facilitating unit of Willis Towers Watson, has rebranded and renamed itself to Willis Towers Watson Securities.

Welcome to the Artemis ILS NYC 2017 post conference report. Our New York event, for a discerning audience of insurance-linked securities (ILS), reinsurance and capital markets experts, saw participants embrace our theme of “Future Thinking.”

With penetration of cyber risk re/insurance increasing and seen as a huge opportunity for the market, questions turn to how best to back-stop the growth of this emerging line of business, with the help of government support or through private initiatives, including using the capital markets?

The average return across a group of 34 insurance-linked securities (ILS), pure catastrophe bond and reinsurance-linked investment funds came in at a below average 0.32% for February 2017, with some prior month loss reserve adjustments perhaps impacting performance.

Lloyd’s of London still aims to attract more alternative capital providers and products into the market by the end of 2018, as its interim milestones remain unchanged, and will revisit the Index featuring loss ratios and data on the insurance market’s performance, at the end of this year, Inga Beale said today.

“Negative trends have become increasingly evident” when looking at Bermudian insurance and reinsurance company results, according to A.M. Best, as the Bermuda market increasingly struggles to generate a profit that covers its cost-of-capital.