Archive for June, 2015

Insurance and reinsurance broker Willis Group has launched a captive type solution to enable pension funds to establish their own insurance intermediary, in order to ease access to global longevity reinsurance capacity.

Ratings agency Standard & Poor’s has confirmed that EXOR’s capital structure and that its debt, and that of its investee companies, would have no bearing on reinsurance firm PartnerRe’s ratings should EXOR be successful in its mission to acquire the firm.

The use of parametric triggers in catastrophe bonds are the best path to a sustainable, lower cost of capital and towards realising the vision of the cat bond as a robust asset class, Samir Shah, Head of Capital Markets and Catastrophe Risk at AIG, told Artemis.

Collateralised and insurance-linked securities (ILS) backed capacity providers played a key role in the Florida Hurricane Catastrophe Fund’s (FHCF) 2015 purchase of $1 billion of private reinsurance cover, which Artemis has details of today.

The expansion of terms and conditions (T&C) has been a common feature of the global reinsurance sector as companies look to offset some of the pressures of a softening market, but analysts at Goldman Sachs feel European reinsurers are managing to resist the trend.

The second named storm of the 2015 Atlantic tropical storm and hurricane season formed a few hours ago, as tropical storm Bill gained sufficient organisation in the Gulf of Mexico to be named on its way to the Texas coastline.

Warren Buffett’s Berkshire Hathaway has signaled its appetite for Australian and Asian expansion with the signing of a 10 year partnership deal with Australian insurer IAG, involving an equity stake and a 20% quota share reinsurance arrangement.

The Microinsurance Consortium and Venture Incubator (MVI) has announced the group will now operate under the name Blue Marble Microinsurance (Blue Marble), a venture launched earlier this year with a goal to increase access to insurance for the world’s most vulnerable people.

Dinos Iordanou, Chairman and CEO of insurance and reinsurance specialist Arch Capital, said that the investment-oriented reinsurer, or hedge fund-backed strategy, could be the “future of the business” as companies look to marry underwriting with investment expertise.

The current excess or glut of reinsurance capital, which continues to build while global loss experience remains benign, is expected to ultimately weigh on property and casualty (P&C) insurance share prices, according to rating agency A.M. Best.