Archive for September, 2017

The amount of convergence capacity in reinsurance, so the capital in insurance-linked securities (ILS) funds, reinsurer sponsored third-party capital vehicles such as sidecars and from direct institutional investors, continues to grow but the pace of growth has been slowing, according to A.M. Best.

The Pacific Alliance trade bloc in Latin America continues to work towards its first catastrophe bond issue, with reports suggesting that progress continues to be made with the assistance of the World Bank and 2018 mooted as a potential year for issuance.

The dollar amount of insurance claims filed and calculated after hurricane Irma jumped 57% in just a few days, now passing $3 billion and with almost 500,000 claims now filed, according to the Florida Office of Insurance Regulation.

Availability of reinsurance capacity and access to it is increasingly important in a longevity risk transfer market, where pension and insurer appetite to offload longevity risks keeps increasing, but reinsurance capacity and pricing can sometimes be constrained.

Primary insurance giant Allstate has begun to eat into its reinsurance protection after suffering an estimated $576 million of gross catastrophe losses, pre-tax, due to the impacts of hurricane Harvey.

According to market sources, both traders and ILS fund managers, following the impacts of hurricanes Harvey and Irma a number of industry-loss warranty (ILW) contracts are expected to payout, with the total at risk seen as in the billions.

In an interview with Artemis at the 2017 Monte-Carlo Reinsurance Rendez-vous, Victor Peignet, Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of SCOR Global P&C, discussed the potential but uncertain impact of hurricane Irma on the softening market, and also what it might mean for the alternative reinsurance capital space.

The insurance and reinsurance industry loss due to the impacts of hurricane Irma on the Caribbean islands and the United States is estimated to be up to $55 billion by catastrophe risk modeller RMS, with economic losses expected to be up to $95 billion.

The first full-year profit warning from a major reinsurance firm has been issued this morning by Talanx owned, German headquartered global player Hannover Re, which said the combined losses from recent catastrophe events could surpass its major loss budget.

Markel CATCo Investment Management has delivered a warning to investors in its flagship listed CATCo Reinsurance Opportunities Fund Ltd. that full-year performance could be erased by the impacts of recent major catastrophe events.