Archive for January, 2018

Insurance industry losses from European windstorm Friederike are already seen as over €1.14 billion ($1.42 billion) in Germany and the Netherlands combined, according to the countries insurance associations.

Investor allocations to insurance-linked securities (ILS) could increase further through 2018, as most of the claims from hurricanes and other loss events have fallen within risk tolerance ranges. But as ILS capacity persists and grows, the implications for traditional reinsurers are ominous, according to JLT Re.

The Health Care Foundation of Greater Kansas City has made a $10 million investment into insurance-linked securities (ILS) with an allocation to an ILS fund managed by Securis Investment Partners, the London-headquartered ILS and reinsurance-linked investments manager, according to a report.

Insurance and reinsurance group Aspen Insurance Holdings Limited has reported a $245 million underwriting loss for the fourth-quarter of 2017, the majority of which is made up of a $135 million hit, after reinsurance, from the California wildfires, while the rest is due to mid-sized and attritional losses.

Insurance and reinsurance industry losses from recent European windstorm Friederike are expected to fall somewhere in a range from EUR 1.3 billion to as much as EUR 2.6 billion, according to catastrophe risk modeller AIR Worldwide.

The insurance and reinsurance-linked investment portfolio of Dutch pension fund manager PGGM grew in 2017, as the asset manager continued to increase allocations to the sector on behalf of the pension fund it manages an allocation for and despite the impacts of catastrophe losses.

The insurance and reinsurance industry loss estimates for the California wildfires of 2017 continue to rise, with the latest being an estimate of a $13.2 billion impact from the October wildfires in northern California and the December wildfires in the south of the state, from Aon Benfield.

Blue Lotus Re Ltd. is a newly launched collateralized reinsurance sidecar vehicle from Bermudian specialty P&C re/insurer Sompo International, part of the Sompo Holdings global re/insurance giant. Blue Lotus Re has been capitalised with $62 million and provides collateralized catastrophe reinsurance capacity.

Given the magnitude of the insurance industry losses suffered in regions affected by major hurricanes in 2017, rating agency Standard & Poor’s anticipates a continuation of the trend seen in January for rising rates, forecasting double-digit rate increases at the Florida and Caribbean renewals later this year.

There is an expectation that the insurance-linked securities (ILS) market will continue to see a brisk pace of issuance, with the volumes of transactions coming to market stimulated not just by demand but also by the innovative nature of the marketplace and 2018 looks bright, according to law firm Appleby.