Archive for June, 2017

The New Zealand government statistical department has increased its estimate of the reinsurance recovery due to insurance companies in the country, raising it from NZ$694 million at the end of 2016 to NZ$814 million at the end of March 2017.

The seventh and largest of the Oak Leaf Re catastrophe bond deals has just been announced as completed, a $53.995 million Oak Leaf Re Ltd. (Series 2017-1) which has been structured and placed by the Jardine Lloyd Thompson Capital Markets (JLTCM) team, for sponsor Southern Oak Insurance Company.

When discussing the health of the insurance-linked securities (ILS) sector too often the state of the reinsurance market is the bellweather, but Rob Procter, CEO of ILS investment specialists Securis Investment Partners LLP, believes that the future has never looked brighter.

The abundance of capacity in the global reinsurance sector from both traditional and alternative sources suggests it might take a number of large events in succession to materially turn pricing, which J.P. Morgan says would be a test for the insurance-linked securities (ILS) space.

Jardine Lloyd Thompson Capital Markets (JLTCM), the investment banking and ILS structuring & issuance team of the reinsurance brokerage JLT Re, has successfully structured and placed another private catastrophe bond transaction, a $65.1 million Market Re Ltd. (Series 2017-1) transaction for a Florida sponsor.

Insurance, reinsurance and capital markets broker and advisory Willis Towers Watson’s private catastrophe bond issuance platform has successfully completed another deal, the brokers fourth so far this year, a $37 million Resilience Re Ltd. (Series 1761A) transaction.

Following a spike in global catastrophe bond and insurance-linked securities (ILS) activity so far in 2017, analysts at RBC Capital Markets expect it could be a record-breaking year  and believe this is likely to impact pricing for well modelled catastrophe exposures.

Cyber risk transfer represents a true commercial opportunity for the insurance-linked securities (ILS) marketplace, and with the help of analytics, better modelling and pricing metrics, the development of indices, triggers, and parametric cyber bonds might not be too far away, according to Credit Suisse’s Benjamin Jacquet.

The first full catastrophe bond issuance from Tokio Millennium Re (Bermuda) has increased in size by 72% while marketing, with the now $430 million Spectrum Capital Ltd. (Series 2017-1) cat bond set to secure an enlarged layer of reinsurance protection for the firm, with pricing now fixed at attractive levels.

The Open Protocol reporting template and associated manual for insurance-linked securities (ILS) and reinsurance linked investment funds has now been published, offering a standardised framework that ILS fund managers can adopt if they choose.