Archive for May, 2018

Global reinsurance giant Munich Re is the latest to say it has taken advantage of market conditions during the first few months of this year, expanding its property & casualty reinsurance book significantly during the first-quarter and at the April renewal season.

We understand that the pricing has now been set for U.S. primary insurance firm Nationwide Mutual’s latest catastrophe bond issuance, the recently upsized to $450 million Caelus Re V Ltd. (Series 2018-1), with three of the four tranches priced below initial guidance and the fourth at the mid-point.

The Hiscox Re & ILS business, which is made up of the reinsurance underwriting and insurance-linked securities (ILS) management at global specialist re/insurer Hiscox Group, underwrote significantly more premiums during the first-quarter of the year, but noted that it had to fight hard for it.

Global reinsurer Hannover Re has significantly expanded its property and casualty reinsurance portfolio during the first-quarter of the year, reporting growth in premiums underwritten of 38.8% at constant exchange rates, including some further expansion in the U.S. market.

Markel CATCo Investment Management Ltd. has strengthened loss reserves considerably for its listed retrocessional reinsurance fund, the CATCo Reinsurance Opportunities Fund, bolstering the reserves for 2017 catastrophe losses by another 19.5% of net asset value.

Before insurance-linked securities (ILS) move wholesale into the cyber risk underwriting arena the technologies and risk models used to quantify cyber exposures will need to mature further, but once that happens we should expect the provision of cyber reinsurance capital to come from diversified sources, according to PwC.

Here are the ten most popular news articles, week ending 6th May 2018, 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 or get our email alerts for every article we publish.

The latest catastrophe bond to be sponsored by Florida’s Citizens Property Insurance Corp. looks set to achieve pricing at or below the middle of initial guidance, as indications suggest that the $200 million Everglades Re II Ltd. (Series 2018-1) will tighten at the lower-end of the launch pricing.

Activities related to capital market transactions such as catastrophe bonds in the first-quarter of 2018 added to strong reinsurance broking revenue growth for Aon plc, as the investment banking side of the broking business continued to drive attractive fees.

Independent fund administrator Apex Group Ltd. is set to rebrand the acquired Equinoxe Alternative Investment Services to Apex Insurance Fund Services, as the firm looks to capitalise on its experience in insurance-linked securities (ILS) fund administration.