Archive for April, 2020

Peak Reinsurance Company Limited (Peak Re), the Hong Kong headquartered global reinsurer that is majority backed by Fosun International, said this morning it has entered into a definitive agreement to acquire Bermuda-based insurance-linked securities (ILS) asset manager Lutece, which it will rename Peak Capital.

The central catastrophe bond investment proposition has held during the extreme financial market volatility created by the coronavirus pandemic, with the ILS asset class positively outperforming other traditional asset classes, according to Twelve Capital.

The results are now in from our market survey that we launched recently alongside sister publication Reinsurance News asking the insurance, reinsurance and insurance-linked securities (ILS) industry for its opinion on the market implications of the Covid-19 coronavirus pandemic.

A dispute levelled against specialist insurance-linked securities (ILS) asset manager Securis over a clawback complaint made by Paraline’s ICAT Syndicate 4242 has been ruled in favour of the ILS fund manager, as clawback never existed in the contract.

The African Risk Capacity (ARC), a parametric sovereign disaster risk insurer for African nations, is planning to add coronavirus protection to its planned outbreaks and epidemics parametric insurance product, which it aims to have available from 2021.

With the traditional reinsurance industry and insurance-linked securities (ILS) market working hard to identify any routes through which unexpected claims from the Covid-19 coronavirus pandemic could leak, it’s perhaps worth looking at one obvious area of uncertainty, the growing in prevalence “other perils” category and similarly worded contract terms.

The Horseshoe managed private catastrophe bond and insurance-linked securities (ILS) issuance and risk transformation vehicle Eclipse Re Ltd. has completed a second issuance of 2020, a $20 million Eclipse Re Ltd. (Series 2020-02A) transaction that came to market around the April reinsurance renewal.

The fact reinsurance prices have risen again at the January and April renewals, especially in peak catastrophe exposed zones, along with the recently demonstrated low-correlation to coronavirus financial market declines, suggests that the improved return potential of the ILS asset class will drive resurgent investor interest.

The ongoing Covid-19 pandemic is expected to have a limited impact on the life insurance-linked securities (ILS) sector, and despite the outlook for life insurance markets being downgraded, the future looks positive for life ILS.

The main insurers that sponsor mortgage insurance-linked securities (ILS), or mortgage insurance-linked notes (ILN), as a way to secure reinsurance from the capital markets to protect their mortgage insurance books, have all had their ratings placed on a negative watch by S&P.