Archive for July, 2018

A project is now underway that may see the country of Romania as the next in line to benefit from a Catastrophe Deferred Drawdown Option (Cat DDO) instrument from the World Bank, as the government of the country seeks to enhance its disaster risk financing support.

Catastrophe losses in the second-quarter of 2018 appear manageable for property and casualty (P&C) insurers and reinsurers, however, analysts warn that rising loss trends will likely depress reserves, and that reinsurance capital is expected to assume the large majority of Hurricane Irma’s loss creep.

Nephila Capital, the largest investment manager of catastrophe and weather insurance-linked securities (ILS), has increased its total assets under management by roughly 11% so far this year, reaching $12.2 billion of ILS AuM as of the beginning of July 2018.

It’s common knowledge that the Lloyd’s market has been looking seriously at how an insurance-linked security (ILS) or catastrophe bond structure could assist the market by supporting its capital and profitability, but it is vital any Lloyd’s ILS solution supports syndicate capital, according to Vario Global Capital Ltd.

Singapore has ambitions to become an insurance-linked securities (ILS) domicile for the Asian region or global issuers looking for an alternative, and with a special purpose reinsurance vehicle (SPRV) already regulated for, the addition of protected cell company (PCC) regulation is a natural next step.

The estimate for insurance and reinsurance industry losses caused by extratropical cyclone, or European windstorm, Friederike (David), has been increased by another 3% to EUR 1.675 billion, which suggests that roughly 77% of the economic impact from the windstorm was insured.

Swedish catastrophe bond fund manager Entropics Asset Management AB has taken a new investment in the management company from a well-known Swedish IT entrepreneur, with Lars Irstad purchasing 9.9% of the asset manager.

A new initiative to develop a parametric insurance product to protect and enhance the resilience of coral reefs and the communities that rely on them is being developed by Willis Towers Watson through its Global Ecosystem Resilience Facility (GERF) and the Mesoamerican Reef Fund (MAR Fund).

Catastrophe risk modelling specialists RMS have launched version 18 of their risk model suite, brining with it a raft of additions and expansions, particularly in the Asia Pacific region where new perils have been added including a focus on flood risks.

The reinsurance market is expected to take a much closer look at the adequacy of pricing and profitability for many longer-tailed lines of specialty and casualty business, especially as reinsurers have generally been unable to command the payback they may once have been used to, following the catastrophes of 2017.