Archive for December, 2015

The latest catastrophe bond from the world’s largest reinsurance firm Munich Re, Queen Street XI Re dac, looks set to secure the company $100 million of capital market backed U.S. hurricane and Australian cyclone retrocessional reinsurance protection.

Clear Blue Financial Holdings LLC, the newly formed commercial insurance fronting carrier has officially launched today and will begin servicing clients immediately as a pure fronting services provider through its two fully licensed and rated insurance carriers.

An increase in primary catastrophe bond deal-flow, as well as the approach of the key reinsurance renewals on 1st January, stimulated greater liquidity in the secondary market for cat bonds in November.

Consultancy Mercer, insurance firm Zurich and reinsurance firm Pacific Life Re have assisted an unnamed UK pension plan to offload the longevity exposure associated with a “named life” group of pensioners in a streamlined longevity hedge.

Europe’s insurance and reinsurance sector watchdog, the European Insurance and Occupational Pensions Authority (EIOPA), highlights the continued and ongoing threat that current reinsurance market conditions pose to the traditional business model.

Aspen Reinsurance said that its alternative capital management and insurance-linked securities (ILS) unit, Aspen Capital Markets, has renewed its collateralized reinsurance sidecar Silverton Re with $125 million of capital for the 2016 underwriting year.

Warren Buffett has again reduced his investment in the reinsurance industry by cutting his share holdings in the world’s largest reinsurer Munich Re, as the ‘Sage of Omaha’ continues to dial back on his firm Berkshire Hathaway’s interest in reinsurance underwriting.

Clear Blue, the start-up risk fronting and program business transformation company that aims to help sources of risk or reinsurance capacity reach program risks and primary insurance business, has been given A- ratings for its two insurers.

Catastrophe bond pricing held largely steady during the third-quarter of 2015, according to GC Securities, with demand most robust for the highest yielding issuances but ample capital available to support deals as investor interest is still high.

Typhoon Melor (known as Nona locally) is bearing down on a Category 3 or 4 landfall in the central Philippines in the coming hours. The Philippines is in the firing line for yet another typhoon, in this year of high activity in the Pacific tropical storm and cyclone regions.