Archive for August, 2018

Nephila Capital, the world’s largest investment manager specialising in catastrophe and weather insurance-linked securities (ILS) and reinsurance linked assets, is to be 100% acquired by Markel Corporation in a move that is certain to create waves in the marketplace.

Institutional investor appetite for alternative investment asset classes is on the rise, with more investors now allocating to alternative asset classes and the main driver continues to be a hunt for diversified returns for their portfolios.

Expansion of the insurance-linked securities (ILS) and catastrophe bond market beyond the traditional property catastrophe exposures holds both “promise & peril” for market participants, according to brokerage Willis Towers Watson.

The Caribbean island nation of Haiti is to receive grant funding to help pay its premiums for parametric insurance cover from the CCRIF SPC (formerly known as the Caribbean Catastrophe Risk Insurance Facility).

Reinsurance giant Hannover Re continues to take advantage of the expanding insurance-linked securities (ILS) sector, and sees further opportunities in a marketplace that is “here to stay,” according to Henning Ludolphs, Managing Director of Retrocessions & Capital Markets at Hannover Re.

Tony Belisle, CEO of Markel CATCo Investment Management Ltd. and a number of Directors of the managers London-listed retrocessional reinsurance strategy, have acquired more shares in the fund yesterday.

London-headquartered insurance and reinsurance linked investments manager Securis Investment Partners has added two new hires as it looks to create its own dedicated capability in non-life risk analytics and technical development.

Global reinsurance giant Swiss Re has noted the continued and increased appetite of insurance-linked securities (ILS) investors to allocate capital to the sector, despite recent losses and potential ongoing loss development from 2017’s catastrophe events.

Long-range weather forecast model runs show a chance of Atlantic tropical systems forming in the next fortnight, with some being given as much as a 60% chance of becoming a named storm, while another has a lower probability being further out, but if it transpires it could be more impactful to insurance and reinsurance.

USAA is moving a little closer to understanding just how big a recovery it can make from ILS investors against the reinsurance provided by its Residential Re catastrophe bond series, now opting to repay $20 million of the extended notes to investors, but still holding onto $150 million more with a further extension of maturity.