Archive for May, 2015

With the current softened state of reinsurance rates and competitive pressures from well-capitalised reinsurers and growing insurance-linked securities players, the property catastrophe reinsurance market is “not as much fun as it was,” according to Aspen CEO Chris O’Kane.

The boards of insurance and reinsurance firms AXIS Capital and PartnerRe have reaffirmed their commitment to complete the merger between the two firms, but EXOR says that it remains committed to its offer which it terms a “superior all-cash” deal for shareholders.

The Texas Windstorm Insurance Association’s (TWIA) latest catastrophe bond issuance is set to become its biggest by a long way, as the Alamo Re Ltd. (Series 2015-1) issuance has grown in size to $700m, while the pricing has been set near the upper end of guidance.

Warren Buffett is none too happy that reinsurance has become what he termed a “fashionable asset class”, as the fact that investors are increasingly attracted to the space has damaged his insurance and reinsurance businesses returns.

Insurance industry losses from severe weather events deemed catastrophes in Australia continue to rise, with a fifth event for 2015 being added thanks to another severe east coast storm that impacted Queensland and New South Wales.

Commercial property and casualty (P&C) rates during the first-quarter of 2015 declined by an average of 2.3% as a lack of catastrophe losses and ample reinsurance capacity continues to pressure markets, according to KBW analysts and the CIAB.

Here are the ten most popular news articles, week ending 3rd May 2015, covering catastrophe bonds, ILS, reinsurance capital and related risk transfer topics. To ensure you never miss a thing  subscribe to the weekly Artemis email newsletter updates.

Fosun International Limited is taking steps to increase the contribution of insurance and reinsurance to its business, bidding to buy the rest of re/insurer Ironshore as it seeks to become an insurance-oriented investment group.

Asian governments continue to make efforts to promote and encourage the launch of new natural disaster and weather or climate insurance and reinsurance schemes, while trying to increase uptake of existing ones.

AlphaCat Managers Ltd., the ILS and third-party capital focused unit of insurance and reinsurance group Validus, increased its premiums written in the first-quarter as it put its increased capital to work having raised new funds for the start of 2015.