Archive for December, 2012

PERILS AG, the independent Zurich-based company providing industry-wide European catastrophe insurance data and loss indices, has issued their fourth and final loss estimate for European windstorm Joachim, a storm which impacted Western Europe from 15 – 17 December 2011. The loss estimate has been reduced by €33m to leave a final property insurance market loss […]

The estimates of re/insurance industry losses from hurricane and superstorm Sandy continue to rise with the latest, and largest to date, loss estimate coming from independent reinsurance broker Holborn. So far the highest insured loss estimate has been from risk modeller RMS who said they believe Sandy will result in losses of $20 billion to […]

The market continues to generate significant interest and buzz and as a result the news flow has been brisk again in the last week. As we head towards the end-of-year holidays we expect this to slow as focus turns to the reinsurance renewals. As always, you can read every market news story and article on […]

The European Insurance and Occupational Pensions Authority (EIOPA) has published its second half-year report for 2012 on the financial stability of the insurance, reinsurance and occupational pension sectors in the European Economic Area. The report says that the financial soundness of the insurance and reinsurance sector in Europe could face a ‘significantly negative outlook’ over […]

Reinsurer Swiss Re held a media event yesterday at which they discussed trends in the insurance-linked securities, catastrophe bond and reinsurance convergence markets, how the market has developed in 2012 and a few thoughts on where the market can develop further in 2013 and beyond. Encouragingly Swiss Re seem very confident on the cat bond […]

Back in October we wrote about an issue that had arisen which could affect issuers of catastrophe bonds and insurance-linked securities due to changing regulation in U.S. financial markets. Under the Dodd-Frank Act the definition of a ‘commodity pool’ was being expanded to include any entity which operates to trade in swaps. At the same […]

Today saw reinsurer Swiss Re hold their annual insurance-linked securities (ILS) media event at their London offices, where they presented their thoughts on how the ILS, catastrophe bond and reinsurance convergence markets have progressed during 2012. With Swiss Re Capital Markets themselves playing a leading role in the ILS and cat bond space, it is […]

London based insurance-linked securities and reinsurance-linked investment manager Leadenhall Capital Partners continues to experience growth in its assets under management thanks to inflows of capital from both new and old investors. The investment manager now has over $850m under management and hopes to grow that further by early 2013.

As we approach the ever important January reinsurance renewal period discussion tends to turn to which way rates are likely to go, up or down. Throughout 2012 the general opinion has been that rate rises would slow and renewals would be flat in 2013 but some market participants remain bullish and are calling for rates […]

About a week ago we wrote about the challenge to the $7.5 billion pension risk transfer transaction which would see Verizon Communications transferring $7.5 billion of the Verizon Management Pension Plan obligations to insurer Prudential. The deal was hit with a lawsuit from two Verizon retirees who filed suit seeking to block the transaction as […]