Archive for December, 2013

The first quantitative forecast for the 2014 Atlantic tropical storm and hurricane season has been published by Tropical Storm Risk (TSR). The early forecast calls for Atlantic hurricane season activity to be near-normal during 2014.

As reinsurance pricing pressure builds, due to surplus traditional reinsurance capital, the influx of alternative capital and higher risk retention rates at primary insurers, Nomura analysts suggest U.S. property catastrophe reinsurance pricing could slip by 15% to 25% at renewals.

The latest catastrophe bond from Argo Group, Loma Reinsurance (Bermuda) Ltd. (Series 2013-1), has increased in size by 65% to $165m and price guidance has dropped to below the initial range on all three tranches of notes being offered.

Pricing expectations for American Modern Insurance Group’s first catastrophe bond, Queen City Re Ltd. (Series 2013-1), have dropped to below the initial price guidance range, as ILS investors again show their demand for new cat bond paper.

The AstraZeneca Pension Fund Trustee has entered into a longevity swap covering £2.5 billion of liabilities and approximately 10,000 of its pensioners with investment bank Deutsche Bank, passing the ultimate risk onto reinsurance firms.

November was the first month since February with no new catastrophe bonds completing, giving investors a lull before the inevitably busy end of the year and contributing to a modest months trading in the secondary market for cat bonds.

The London insurance and reinsurance market plans to take on at least 10% more U.S. windstorm risk in 2014, adding to abundant capacity from both traditional and non-traditional sources as we approach the January reinsurance renewals.

Elementum Advisors, an independent insurance-linked securities (ILS) and reinsurance-linked investment manager has registered a new SPI in Bermuda, called Elementum Re Ltd., as it further enhances its platform for writing collateralized reinsurance.

You can read every market news story and article, week ending 15th December 2013, here on the Artemis news blog. Subscribe to the weekly email newsletter updates and for your convenience here are the ten most popular news articles from the last seven days on Artemis.

Statements which say that third-party, or alternative, reinsurance capital is temporary and will likely depart the reinsurance market at the first signs of stress are misguided, according to Aspen Capital Markets MD Brian Tobben.