Archive for February, 2015

As the reinsurance sector’s capitalisation continues to rise and pressure pricing, thanks to well-capitalised traditional balance-sheets along with growing alternative capital, it is likely to contribute to lower returns on equity for reinsurers and fuel the M&A trend, says Fitch.

A recent report by ratings agency A.M. Best examining the dynamics of Europe’s 20 largest cedents’ reinsurance purchasing operations, highlights the increasing issue of abundant reinsurance capital but with less risk to underwrite, as centralised reinsurance buying bites.

Following continued market pressures, emphasised by increased competition and abundant capacity, commercial property and casualty (P&C) rates were flat in January 2015, according to MarketScout’s latest report.

Global independent insurance and reinsurance manager Kane has announced the launch of a new ILS note program today, with an added feature, the addition of the EuroClear Settlement System which Kane says will facilitate secondary trading for cat bonds.

Artex Risk Solutions, the alternative risk and captives arm of brokerage Arthur J Gallagher, has joined forces with PwC to launch Iccaria, a Guernsey domiciled facility which can act as an intermediary insurer for pensions looking to transact longevity swaps.

Bermudian reinsurance and third-party reinsurance capital management firm RenaissanceRe has now received all the necessary regulatory approvals for its acquisition of Platinum Underwriters Holdings Ltd.

The final insurance industry loss estimate for European windstorm Tini, which struck in February 2014, has been put at at €286m by PERILS AG, the Swiss headquartered provider of industry-wide European catastrophe exposure, industry loss data and indices.

Specialty insurance and reinsurance company Lancashire Holdings reported an increase in pre-tax profits this morning, and growing contribution from third-party capital at Kinesis, despite the “pressures” in reinsurance and retrocession markets.

As we wrote back in December, the Board of Florida Citizens approved sponsoring another Everglades Re Ltd. catastrophe bond as part of its 2015 risk transfer program, which will seek around $4.05 billion of reinsurance protection for the insurer.

The Harambee Re collateralized sidecar has been renewed for 2015, by international specialty insurance and reinsurance group Argo. This year Argo has changed its sidecar strategy, as Harambee 2015 will only feature reinsurance business.