Archive for May, 2020

Issuance of new catastrophe bonds has continued to be brisk over the last few weeks, with repeat sponsors helping to drive total catastrophe bond and related insurance-linked securities (ILS) issuance for 2020 to-date above $7.2 billion, according to Artemis’ Deal Directory data.

Property Claim Services (PCS) has seen growing interest for its service that tracks global large onshore property losses of $500 million or greater and expects the first large risk industry loss warranty’s (ILW’s) will be transacted soon.

For insurance-linked securities (ILS) contracts and structures that have exposure to potential losses from the Covid-19 corornavirus pandemic, the chances are that their capital and collateral could be trapped for a prolonged duration, executives from RenaissanceRe have suggested.

2020 looks set to be another significant year for severe convective storm losses in the United States, with the insurance and reinsurance market already on the hook for over $13 billion of costs year-to-date, with hail again a significant driver.

The secondary market for catastrophe bond trading has offered some good opportunities in recent times, but with the focus now back on primary issuance, it’s an interesting moment for investors, says Stephan Ruoff of Schroder Secquaero.

The Caribbean island of St Lucia has increased its participation level in the CCRIF SPC (formerly known as the Caribbean Catastrophic Risk Insurance Facility), buying an enlarged slice of parametric disaster insurance protection for 2020.

Institutional investors surveyed by Eaton Partners remain focused on finding sources of relatively uncorrelated return from their alternative and private market investments, while the majority intend to stay with their allocations to alternative investments, citing a long-term focus.

Beazley, the Lloyd’s market focused specialist insurance and reinsurance underwriter, has ambitious targets for bringing significant amounts of third-party capital under its management through facilities, or beta-like market tracking structures, according to analysts.

The Covid-19 pandemic is like a “live cat” for the reinsurance industry, one that will keep on driving losses, and this combined with the challenges caused by recent consecutive catastrophe loss years appears to have driven the market into a phase of “sustainable hardening,” analysts at JMP Securities have said.

The global reinsurance market will fail to make returns above its cost-of-capital due to the impacts of the Covid-19 coronavirus pandemic, Fitch Ratings has said following a review of ratings in the sector.