Archive for August, 2016

Two senior appointments at Willis Re, the reinsurance broking arm of Willis Towers Watson, have been announced, with Chris McDowell of Aon Benfield being named CEO of Willis Re Bermuda, as Michael Harden is set to return to the Asia Pacific region taking a role as President of Willis Re Asia Pacific.

In the latest in our series of interviews with figures from the risk transfer and insurance-linked securities (ILS) markets, Artemis spoke with Barney Schauble, Managing Partner at specialist catastrophe and weather risk asset manager Nephila Capital.

International ratings agency Standard & Poor’s (S&P) has highlighted the strong enterprise risk management (ERM) practices of global reinsurers as key to success in the current market. But as market headwinds persist and margins continue to thin, the harder it will be for firms to weather the storm.

Despite the fact that U.S. flood events are largely paid for by the National Flood Insurance Program (NFIP) and primary insurance, where flood is a covered peril, the recent severe floods in Louisiana could see some of the burden covered by reinsurance capital.

Is blockchain a solution in search of a problem? For the insurance industry, there’s been plenty of chatter about distributed ledger technology and smart contracts, but take-up has been thin.

The Government of Belize has received a payout of $261,073 from parametric insurance coverage provided by the CCRIF SPC (formerly the Caribbean Catastrophe Risk Insurance Facility), after torrential rainfall caused by hurricane Earl.

A new suite of high resolution Europe Inland Flood Hazard Data has been released by catastrophe risk modeller RMS, which the firm says provides global insurance and reinsurance firms (and perhaps ILS players) with a greater opportunity to write business for an underinsured risk.

Global investment management group Schroders plc has increased the stake it holds in reinsurance and insurance linked securities (ILS) investment fund, the Blue Capital Global Reinsurance Fund, to over 16%, further demonstrating the asset managers liking for insurance linked investments.

Australian primary company Insurance Australia Group (IAG) is pushing for rate rises, raising its commercial insurance product pricing as it seeks to wield its influence in response to the market pressure created by excess insurance and reinsurance capital.

Welcome to the Artemis ILS Asia 2016 post-conference report, which offers an insight into some of the discussions that took place on stage as well as between speakers and attendees during the first Artemis event in the region.