Archive for February, 2020

The Texas Windstorm Insurance Association (TWIA) has raised its target for reinsurance and catastrophe bond coverage for this year to $2.1 billion, while at the same time the expectations for average rate-on-line have fallen slightly since December.

Rates and pricing at the upcoming April 1st 2020 renewals of Japanese reinsurance programs could see increases of roughly double the magnitude seen a year ago, with increases of 40% to 50% seen as possible in some loss impacted areas of the market, analysts at JMP Securities have said.

Pacific Gas and Electricity (PG&E), the wildfire stricken California focused electrical utility operator, said today that its Chapter 11 bankruptcy plans remain on track and as a result it hopes to join the state’s newly formed wildfire fund and also make progress towards the subrogation payments it owes.

Recent European windstorms and resulting flooding pose an increasing threat to certain layers of UK and European reinsurance programs, as loss estimates begin to suggest multi-billion Euro industry impacts in the last fortnight.

Commitments to the Athene Co-Invest Reinsurance Affiliate (ACRA) insurance-linked sidecar vehicle have now reached an impressive $3.2 billion, as capital raising continued within the feeder fund managed by investor and private equity specialist Apollo Global.

2020 is the year when the insurance-linked securities (ILS) market should flex its muscles to ensure the robustness of its products for both cedents and investors, speakers at our recent New York ILS conference said.

Aspen Re, the global reinsurance division of Bermuda headquartered specialty re/insurer Aspen Insurance Holdings Limited, has announced two new hires in ex-Vibe Re CEO Richard Milner and Middle East & Africa specialist Antoine Bdadouni.

The World Bank is working alongside the governments of Singapore and Japan to establish a disaster insurance pool to cover infrastructure risks for Asian countries, with the facility set to provide coverage from later this year.

The secondary market indicative price for one tranche of the World Bank’s pandemic catastrophe bond transaction has now responded to the rise in cases from the novel coronavirus outbreak.

The catastrophe bond market can look forward to a banner year in 2020, according to Judith Klugman, Head of ILS Sales for reinsurance firm Swiss Re’s Alternative Capital Partners unit.