Archive for June, 2017

Reinsurance and retrocession linked investment management specialist Markel CATCo Investment Management Ltd. has announced this morning that its Chief Executive Officer Tony Belisle is to extend his contract with the firm.

Those calling for a bottom to the reinsurance market cycle and an end to the persistent softening trend seen over the last few years may be disappointed, as analysts from Deutsche Bank join those suggesting further rate declines could be seen at the January 2018 renewals.

Forecasters are now doubting the arrival of El Niño conditions during the 2017 Atlantic Tropical Storm & Hurricane Season, which is causing the forecasts for hurricane activity to rise again. Meanwhile, the tropical season kicked off with the naming of tropical storm Bret yesterday, while another disturbance also threatens the Gulf Coast this week.

CATRisk Solutions has released a new Oasis earthquake risk model for the Middle East, a region underserved by catastrophe modellers when compared with more advanced markets and, that will provide insurers, reinsurers, and insurance-linked securities (ILS) players with a more comprehensive view of earthquake risk across the Middle East.

It’s official. 2017 has now broken the record for full-year catastrophe bond issuance, with new risk capital issued so far already reaching $9.14 billion, according to the Artemis Deal Directory, putting the first double figure cat bond year easily within sight.

The 2017 Atlantic hurricane season is expected to be an active one, potentially adding further pressure to the profitability of already challenged Floridian insurers. However, the availability of efficient reinsurance and insurance-linked securities (ILS) capacity continues to benefit firms, says Kroll Bond Rating Agency (KBRA).

Risk modelling firm AIR Worldwide has launched an update to its United States earthquake risk model, with updates including to event generation, local intensity calculation, and damage estimation modules, as well as the addition of tsunami risks, and an induced seismicity module to model the effects of human activity on earthquake occurrence.

The threat that excess industry capital and capacity poses to insurance and reinsurance companies is perceived as a higher risk by Bermudian firms than it is by the rest of the world, reflecting the fact that Bermuda’s re/insurance market remains perhaps the most affected by the growth of alternative capital and ILS.

The record high levels of new catastrophe bond issuance seen in May 2017 has once again helped to stimulate activity in the secondary trading market, as ILS fund managers and investors looked to balance their portfolios and also deal with higher levels of maturities during the month.

Here are the ten most popular news articles, week ending 18th June 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.