Archive for June, 2014

The Global Index Insurance Facility (GIIF), a weather and disaster insurance facility managed by International Finance Corporation alongside the World Bank, has received funding to help it expand the use of index insurance in agriculture.

The reinsurance industry as well as the entire property casualty insurance sector needs to undergo an evolution, as the profound impact of new capital forces the traditional business model to be disrupted, according to industry analysts.

Shareholders Transatlantic Holdings, Inc. (TransRe) and the executive management of Bermuda-based insurance-linked asset manager Pillar Capital Holdings Limited have increased their ownership position in the firm to 50% each.

As the reinsurance market adapts to and embraces capacity sourced from third-party investors and the capital markets it will innovate, finding new mechanisms and evolving reinsurance and capital market structures to deploy this capacity.

An average 36% of seven sample reinsurance placements of $500m or greater was placed with non-traditional reinsurance markets or using catastrophe bonds, according to data from reinsurance broker Willis Re.

Florida’s Citizens Property Insurance Corporation, which managed to purchase $1 billion of additional reinsurance protection in 2014 for lower spend than in 2013, is set to lower seven out of ten of its primary insurance customers rates in 2015.

The latest catastrophe bond from the world’s largest reinsurance company Munich Re, Queen Street X Re Limited, is set to price at the top end of guidance, another indication that insurance-linked securities (ILS) investors have established a floor for cat bond pricing.

The flow of alternative capital into the reinsurance market in the last five years is a seismic change perhaps greater than any change seen at any time in the reinsurance business, according to James Kent, President of reinsurance broker Willis Re North America.

The New Zealand Earthquake Commission (EQC) has utilised an element of non-traditional, or alternative, reinsurance capital within its recently completed $4.5 billion reinsurance programme renewal, a spokesperson confirmed to Artemis.

PERILS AG, the Swiss-based provider of industry-wide European catastrophe insurance industry loss data and indices, has disclosed an updated third industry-wide insured loss estimate for European windstorm Dirk, raising the figure to €370m.