Archive for January, 2014

Aon Benfield Securities, the capital market, catastrophe bond and insurance-linked securities (ILS) arm of reinsurance broker Aon saw 2013 as a ground-breaking year for the ILS market, as demand from investors helped the market grow to record size.

Impact Forecasting, reinsurance broker Aon Benfield’s catastrophe model development unit, has released its report on 2013 natural catastrophe events and puts total insured catastrophe losses for 2013 at $45 billion.

As promised when Artemis first covered this transaction, the first insurance-linked securities (ILS) issuance of 2014, here are some more details on health insurer Aetna’s Vitality Re V Ltd. (Series 2014-1), its latest medical benefit claims ratio linked ILS.

According to leading reinsurance brokers, the market for retrocessional reinsurance coverage saw pricing declines of as much as 25% at the recent January reinsurance renewals.

You can read every market news story and article here on the Artemis news blog. Subscribe to the weekly email newsletter updates to never miss a thing. For your convenience here are the ten most popular articles from the last seven days on Artemis.

Bermuda based reinsurance firm Everest Re has exceeded its capital raising target for its Mt. Logan Re fully-collateralized reinsurance sidecar, reaching $370m in capacity, $314.5m of which is from third-party investors.

The continuing inflow of non-traditional capital into the reinsurance market from capital market and institutional investor sources could result in a renewed interest in mergers & acquisitions, according to a report from professional services firm Deloitte.

German insurers are set to pay out €7 billion, which is approximately $9.6 billion, as a result of the weather catastrophes which struck the region in 2013, which the Association of German Insurers (GDV) has termed an exceptional year.

Price reductions seen across most lines of reinsurance business at the January renewals this year are a credit negative factor in the outlook for reinsurers, according to a report from ratings agency Moody’s.

Hamilton Insurance Group, the holding company for the newly established Bermudian reinsurer Hamilton Re, which was formed after it acquired hedge fund backed SAC Re, has named ex-Citigroup chief Sanford I. “Sandy” Weill as Chairman of its Board.