Archive for May, 2015

The U.S. NOAA’s Climate Prediction Center released its official May forecast for the 2015 Atlantic tropical storm & hurricane season today, predicting a 70% chance of a below normal season and citing the potential for El Niño to suppress activity this year.

Analysts from Goldman Sachs believe that reinsurance pricing could stabilise by the end of 2016, but warn that this could be at a structurally lower level from where they may not rise much again, even after future losses.

Insurance industry losses from U.S. severe thunderstorms, so including hail and tornado events, are estimated to have reached $3.1 billion by mid-May and are expected to spike sharply higher, given the widespread impacts of extreme weather in recent days.

Premiums for earthquake insurance in Japan are set to rise again, with Nikkei reporting rises of between 20% and 30% are likely from 2016. The upwards pressure on primary insurance may help to slow or even stop the softening of reinsurance premiums in Japan.

Property Claim Services (PCS) is expanding internationally and has today announced the launch of PCS Turkey, to provide catastrophe loss aggregation services and industry loss estimates for events that occur throughout the country.

Floridian insurers are better protected with catastrophe reinsurance than in the early 1990’s pre-hurricane Andrew, thanks to the use of both vertical and sideways protection, according to financial analysis firm Demotech Inc.

San Francisco based Metabiota, a company focused on risk analytics for epidemic, is working with reinsurance and insurance companies to create risk transfer and financing solutions that can provide epidemic or outbreak insurance.

The Kiskadee ILS funds, operated by Hiscox Group’s third-party reinsurance capital and insurance-linked securities unit Kiskadee Investment Managers, took advantage of diversification opportunities at the April renewals to grow its portfolios to over 300 positions.

In current form, the U.S. Treasury Internal Revenue Service’s proposed rules for Passive Foreign Investment Companies (PFICs) could impact a number of alternative risk, reinsurance and ILS structures and activities.

The London Market Group (LMG), an organisation established to look at London’s role in insurance and reinsurance, has now established a task force to look at progressing initiatives to make London a more attractive hub for catastrophe bonds and ILS.