Archive for May, 2016

The insurance-linked securities (ILS) and collateralised reinsurance market could more than double in size by 2020, growing from the roughly $70 billion of capacity it provides today, to as much as $160 billion, according to LGT’s Michael Stahel.

According to sources, investment bank Credit Suisse’s Operational Re Ltd. transaction, which looks to emulate the catastrophe bond to secure insurance via the capital markets for operational risk exposures, is now set to launch in the coming days as a CHF200m (approx US$205m) bond.

The Insurance Development Forum (IDF), an international group consisting of insurance and reinsurance industry representatives, in partnership with the World Bank and the United Nations (UN), has announced the appointment of leading industry CEOs.

A new catastrophe bond has launched to investors, bringing another new sponsor to market, as three United Insurance Holdings subsidiaries seek at least $100m of fully collateralized reinsurance through a Laetere Re Ltd. (Series 2016-1) issuance.

Meteorologists have long studied the unpredictability and devastation caused by tornado outbreaks in the U.S. in an effort to gain a greater understanding into the predictability, severity and potential location of events.

The Fort McMurray wildfires which devastated the city and area in recent weeks are estimated to have caused an insurance and reinsurance industry loss in the range of US$3.4 billion to US$6.9 billion, according to AIR Worldwide.

Bermuda headquartered reinsurance and retrocession linked ILS investment and fund manager Markel CATCo Investment Management Ltd. said in an update on one of its funds that it does not expect any material impact from the recent Canadian wildfires.

The collateralized reinsurance market has been the fastest growing sub-sector of the insurance-linked securities space, as ILS funds and managers have increasingly participated in traditional reinsurance contracts on a fully collateralized basis.

The Life & Longevity Markets Association (LLMA) and the Institute and Faculty of Actuaries (IFoA) have set up a research team, to be led by Macquarie University, which will seek to develop a method for assessing the basis risk of longevity risk transfer transactions.

Specialist fronting and program service insurer State National Companies has acquired the first of the shell insurance companies it said recently it would purchase to underwrite business exclusively for its program arrangement with ILS manager Nephila Capital.