Archive for August, 2018

The market for streamlined and smaller longevity swap transactions has a new entrant, as Legal & General Assurance Society Limited (Legal & General) has completed its first such deal, a £300 million longevity insurance deal for a mid-sized UK pension.

The latest mortgage insurance linked securities (ILS) transaction to hit the market has now been priced, as Bermudian re/insurer Arch Capital Group moves closer to securing a new $653.3 million slice of collateralized mortgage reinsurance with the Bellemeade Re 2018-2 Ltd. transaction.

The upcoming retirement of Hannover Re CEO Ulrich Wallin means a senior leadership change at the firm and also at its reinsurance competitor Swiss Re, as Jean-Jacques Henchoz of Swiss Re has been named as Wallin’s replacement, while Russell Higginbotham has been named to step in by Swiss Re.

The California Earthquake Authority, the not-for-profit residential earthquake insurance provider, is returning to the capital markets for another slice of reinsurance protection with a new Ursa Re Ltd. (Series 2018-1) catastrophe bond that targets up to $250 million of coverage.

Natural catastrophe and severe weather losses in Australia that fell to the insurance and reinsurance industry in 2018 so far now total roughly AU $261 million, after the Hobart storms and floods industry loss was raised to $100 million by the Insurance Council of Australia.

Singapore’s ambitions and efforts to become a global hub for insurance-linked securities (ILS) business in Asia is expected to “bear fruit in the near future,” according to Fitch Ratings.

The retrocessional reinsurance market has become increasingly dependent on the capital markets and insurance-linked securities (ILS), with third-party capital providers beginning to dominate that sector and reinsurers increasingly utilising third-party capital backed retrocession.

The recent flooding in Japan caused by extreme levels of rainfall could result in an insurance and reinsurance industry loss as high as $4 billion, according to catastrophe risk modeller AIR Worldwide.

The creeping insurance and reinsurance industry-wide loss from last year’s hurricane Irma continues to impact the industry, with new loss creep estimates emerging from segments of the market that were most affected, now including Lloyd’s of London syndicates and the leading Floridian primary insurers.

The insurance and perhaps reinsurance market loss from the recent Genoa, Italy Morandi motorway bridge collapse has been estimated at as much as EUR 600 million (US $685m) by analysts, with business interruption expected to be a large contributor to the industry loss.