Archive for November, 2015

The price or coupon guidance for U.S. military mutual insurer USAA’s Residential Reinsurance 2015 Ltd. (Series 2015-2) catastrophe bond has tightened at the low end of the marketed range, as investors once again show their support for this prolific sponsor.

Managing Director and senior property casualty insurance analyst at UBS Securities LLC, Brian Meredith, has said that alternative capital isn’t going to replace the traditional reinsurance industry anytime soon, but industry experts said that it must expand on its current coverage base.

Flood Re, the UK’s government backed reinsurance scheme to help make flood insurance more accessible to property owners, has secured its first tranche of retrocession, securing £1.29 billion of cover from six traditional counterparties.

The UK government’s draft regulatory framework for facilitating insurance-linked securities (ILS) and collateralised reinsurance business is progressing on its journey through the political houses, now reaching the Report stage in the House of Lords.

Japans three major primary insurance groups all reported their half-year results this morning, with all declaring a significant dip in profitability as natural catastrophe losses from typhoons and severe rainfall events took their toll.

With ongoing market pressures continuing to reshape the need for global reinsurance industry firms to remain relevant is key, with those who fail to do so at risk of disappearing from the reinsurance landscape, according to Liberty Mutual’s James Slaughter.

Alternative capital will continue to expand its share of the overall reinsurance market, albeit at a slower pace than seen over the last 12-18 months, but a key driver of the convergence market moving forward lies with the quality of ILS capital over quantity, according to Niklaus Hilti.

The uncertain, potential impact climate change could have on the insurance and reinsurance industry has seen it fast become a top emerging risk and the possibility of increased weather-related event severity or frequency could result in greater demand for risk capital and ILS.

The emerging insurance and reinsurance markets across Asia present a significant growth opportunity for insurance, reinsurance and insurance-linked securities (ILS) players, but uneven underwriting discipline is a challenge the region must overcome.

When the reinsurance market is challenging, competitive and underwriting opportunities seem less attractive so you pull back on premiums underwritten, wouldn’t it be nice to still make a decent return on your investments?