Archive for January, 2015

The eighth in this series of articles involving leading figures from insurance-linked securities (ILS) and reinsurance on the markets prospects for 2015 features Gary Martucci and Maren Josefs from Standard & Poor’s.

Insured losses across the U.S. as a result of catastrophe events increased 19% on 2013’s total, at $15.4 billion, as the frequency of events toppled the ten-year-average, according to the latest data from Property Claims Services (PCS) Q4 and Full-Year 2014 Catastrophe Review.

ISO, a division of Verisk Analytics, has launched a new initiative that will see it targeting the reinsurance and ILS space as it seeks to develop data and analytics tools which make operating, capital and capacity management more efficient.

An active month of trading activity in the secondary market for insurance-linked securities (ILS) and catastrophe bonds was observed again in December, as ILS investors continued to free up capital for new cat bonds and reinsurance renewals.

Of 85 insurance and reinsurance vehicles licensed in Guernsey during 2014, 45% of the business underwritten during the year was insurance-linked securities (ILS) related, demonstrating the domiciles attractiveness for ILS transactions.

In an interview with Bloomberg, Amer Ahmed the CEO of Allianz Re said that some reinsurance rates are reaching unsustainable levels which, if prices continue to decline, may cause his firm to buy more reinsurance and sell less.

Rating agency A.M. Best has placed hedge fund strategy reinsurance firm PaCRe Ltd’s rating under review with negative implications due to a shortfall in performance, compared to its business plan, caused by poor investment returns.

A new, comprehensive, high-resolution storm surge model for the U.S. has been released by catastrophe risk modelling and analysis firm Karen Clark & Company (KCC), which it believes will help ILS investors to get more comfortable with this risk.

Hedge fund strategy reinsurance group Third Point Re has launched a debt offering the proceeds of which will be used to partially finance the capitalisation of its new U.S. subsidiary Third Point Reinsurance (USA) Ltd.

BMS Capital Advisory, Inc. the broker-dealer and capital markets facilitating arm of the BMS insurance and reinsurance brokerage group, has appointed Andrew Bustillo, President & CEO of BMS Intermediaries, as Principal.