Archive for April, 2017

Catastrophe losses suffered by primary insurer The Cincinnati Insurance Companies (Cincinnati) during the first-quarter of 2017 have now reached approximately $106 million (pretax), according to the insurer, which will have eroded some of the buffering layers and retention beneath its $180 million Skyline Re Ltd. (Series 2017-1) private cat bond.

The World Bank hopes to sign on new member countries for its parametric insurance facility, the Pacific Catastrophe Risk Assessment and Financing Initiative (PCRAFI), as the latest phase of the initiative has already encouraged two new enquiries.

U.S. primary insurance group USAA has increased the target size of its new Residential Reinsurance 2017 Ltd. (Series 2017-1) catastrophe bond by 50% to as much as $450 million, as the company looks to take advantage of attractive cat bond market conditions.

Here are the ten most popular news articles, week ending 16th April 2017, 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.

The catastrophe bond market has reached a new all-time high at almost $27.7 billion of risk capital outstanding, as the settlement and closing today of reinsurance firm Everest Re’s $1.25 billion Kilimanjaro II Re 2017-1 and Kilimanjaro II Re 2017-2 take this year’s issuance to $4.031 billion.

Insurance and reinsurance industry losses due to significant European windstorms and extra-tropical cyclones in the 2016/17 winter season have reached EUR 639 million (US$680m) after another EUR 192 million (US$204m) was added for windstorm Zeus from March.

U.S. primary insurer Nationwide Mutual Insurance Company is seeking to sponsor a $300 million Caelus Re V Ltd. (Series 2017-1) catastrophe bond, which will provide it with a new multi-year source of capital market backed catastrophe reinsurance protection.

Global reinsurance firm Swiss Re has published an estimate of its losses due to tropical cyclone Debbie at around US $350 million and the insured market loss at around US $1.3 billion, which would indicate an insurance industry burden greater than 2011’s cyclone Yasi and perhaps tip Swiss Re beyond its Q1 cat budget.

AXIS Re, the reinsurance division of AXIS Capital Holdings, will benefit from new hire Michael Leahey, who joins as Vice President and Deputy Head of Catastrophe Underwriting for Europe, Middle East and North Africa (MENA), and Israel.

The 2017 general insurance stress test from the UK’s Prudential Regulation Authority (PRA) division of the Bank of England is set to identify the use of alternative reinsurance capital, as it seeks information from general insurers on how their capital would respond to severe loss scenarios.