Archive for July, 2017

Bermudian insurance and reinsurance specialist AXIS Capital Holdings announced late yesterday that it is acquiring London and Lloyd’s specialty market player Novae Group for $604 million, in a deal that will help the firm broaden its activities with third-party capital providers.

Colorado State University (CSU) tropical weather forecaster Philip J. Klotzbach has increased his prediction of expected activity from the 2017 Atlantic Tropical Storm & Hurricane Season, calling for 15 named storms and 8 hurricanes this year.

The total number of insurance-linked listings of catastrophe bonds, insurance-linked securities (ILS), reinsurance sidecar notes and insurance linked investments on the Bermuda Stock Exchange (BSX) grew by another 16% during the first six months of 2017, to a new high of $24.5 billion.

After a record-breaking first and second-quarter for catastrophe bond and insurance-linked securities (ILS) issuance, use of Property Claim Services (PCS) data in H1 transactions increased significantly to $4.5 billion when compared with the previous year, according to the PCS H1 2017 Catastrophe Bond Report.

Collateralized reinsurance markets again played a role in the latest renewal of primary insurer Federated National Holding Company (FNHC), with the firm securing a program that will provide an aggregate limit of almost $2.2 billion and a single-event limit of $1.56 billion.

The continued softness of the non-life insurance market is seemingly outweighing premium growth opportunities for now, as softer premium rates cause non-life markets to stagnate in many regions of the world, particularly in advanced markets, according to reinsurance firm Swiss Re.

Huang Hong, Vice Chairman of the China Insurance Regulatory Commission (CIRC) has echoed the views of the Head of the Chinese State Council, Premier Li Keqiang, and called for improved catastrophe risk management in China underpinned by both traditional and alternative risk transfer.

By the end of the first-half of 2017 and once all loss estimates are finalised, it’s expected that insurance and reinsurance industry losses from severe convective storms, thunderstorms, tornadoes, large hail and associated damaging winds in the United States will have exceeded $14 billion.

As the insurance-linked securities (ILS) industry continues to expand its remit and share of the global re/insurance market, London must respond to the opportunity through investment in innovation and by leveraging its expertise, talent and location, according to market experts.

Tokio Solution Management Ltd., the collateralized reinsurance and insurance-linked securities (ILS) unit of global reinsurer Tokio Millennium Re AG, has completed a new private cat bond through its Shima Re vehicle, with the issuance of a $70.6 million Hotaru 2 transaction which we believe to be a renewal for the 2015 Hotaru.