Archive for October, 2016

Trading in catastrophe bonds on the secondary market saw increased activity in September as ILS investors and ILS funds traded positions and prices rose once again as seasonal spread tightening reached what is normally recognised as its peak.

Hurricane Matthew’s impact on Florida and the resulting insurance losses will provide a measure of the states start-up carriers reinsurance arrangements, catastrophe preparedness and ability to respond to major loss events, according to A.M. Best.

Insurance group Zurich has completed another longevity swap transaction, helping an unnamed pension fund enter into a risk transfer arrangement covering £50m of pension longevity liabilities and with 75% of the risk transferred to reinsurance firm Pacific Life Re.

Insurance claims from hurricane Matthew reached $454 million by the end of last week, more than doubling over two days as claims were filed, according to an update from the Florida Office of Insurance Regulation.

Pricing in the insurance-linked securities (ILS) and catastrophe bond market in the third-quarter of 2016 remained in line with recent quarters, says Munich Re, highlighting that there has been no visible sign of further downward movement in risk spreads since year-end 2014.

Analysis from reinsurance broker JLT Re highlights the potential for growth in emerging markets across the globe, underlining the need for access to reinsurance capital, which suggests an opportunity for the ILS space.

Further profit deterioration is expected for the reinsurance sector in the coming months as ample capacity and a return to more normalised loss activity exacerbates the effects of price softening, driving firms into specialty lines, according to Fitch Ratings.

South Korea’s Public Officials Benefit Association, the pension fund manager for government workers pensions and among the largest public pensions in the world at over US$7 billion in assets, has selected LGT ILS Partners, Leadenhall Capital Partners and Nephila Capital for its first ILS mandate.

Here are the ten most popular news articles, week ending 16th October 2016, covering catastrophe bonds, ILS, reinsurance capital and related risk transfer topics. To ensure you never miss a thing subscribe to the weekly Artemis email newsletter updates.

Increased catastrophe losses in the first-half of 2016 and less favourable reserve development contributed to a rise in the combined ratio of P&C insurers, which reported an underwriting loss after a run of gains that started in 2013, according to ISO and the Property Casualty Insurers Association of America (PCI).