Archive for February, 2019

The catastrophe bond market’s merit was underscored by the way it continued to operate effectively despite recent volatility stimulated by catastrophe losses, but after the losses it is expected that investors will want to see cat bond rates harden, according to Swiss Re.

Catastrophe risk modelling specialist RMS is hoping to enhance the insurance and reinsurance industries view of U.S. wildfire risks with a new high-definition risk model that was launched last week.

Markel CATCo Investment Management Ltd., the retrocessional reinsurance investment manager, has successfully secured higher rates at the January renewal, with its listed retro investment fund no loss maximum net return now forecast at 30%, up from 23% in 2018.

Demotech affirmed its financial ratings for 51 Florida based primary insurance companies, highlighting their “realistic” loss reserves and saying their reinsurance is of “sufficient quantity and quality” to ensure they receive payouts after suffering losses.

A group of United Nations backed initiatives are looking to expand the use of parametric or index insurance and reinsurance in the Pacific region, with a study expected to identify new use-cases and possibilities to drive uptake.

Bermudian insurance and reinsurance group Aspen Insurance Holdings Limited has continued to expand its use of collateralized reinsurance and ceding risks to third-party capital investors through its Aspen Capital Markets division.

Global reinsurance firm Munich Re has entered into a longevity swap with the Lafarge UK Pension Plan, the pension scheme of the global building materials company, protecting it against the risks of its pensioners living longer than forecast.

The first standalone terrorism risk catastrophe bond to hit the market, a £75 million Baltic PCC Limited (Series 2019) transaction sponsored by UK government-backed mutual terrorism reinsurance facility Pool Re, has now been priced at the top-end of its initial spread guidance.

The Cape Lookout Re Ltd. (Series 2019-1) catastrophe bond, which is being issued on behalf of sponsor The North Carolina Insurance Underwriting Association (NCIUA), has increased in size significantly while marketing, growing 80% from its $250 million launch to reach $450 million in size.

Here are the ten most popular news articles, week ending 17th February 2019, 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.