Archive for May, 2020

Broker Willis Re has called on its clients and their counterparties to “accelerate the reinsurance calendar” as a response to the Covid-19 pandemic and to avoid any undue delays.

The insurance and reinsurance market faces multi-billion dollar losses after April’s severe convective storms and weather in the United States that drove hail, tornadoes and straight-line wind damage across a wide swathe of the country, Aon said.

California’s not-for-profit residential earthquake insurer the California Earthquake Authority (CEA) is hoping to significantly upsize its latest catastrophe bond issuance, with the Sutter Re Ltd. (Series 20201- & 2020-2) issuance now targeting up to $700 million of reinsurance protection.

Hudson Structured Capital Management Ltd. (doing its insurance investment business as HSCM Bermuda), the insurance-linked securities (ILS), reinsurance- and transportation- focused investment manager, was a lead backer of insurance giant AIG’s recent launch of a new Lloyd’s syndicate.

For our latest Artemis Live video interview I had a detailed and interesting discussion with Stephan Ruoff, the Deputy Head of insurance-linked securities (ILS) asset manager Schroder Secquaero, a specialist division of global investment group Schroders.

Commercial insurance buyers are now facing the prospects of an extended hardening market thanks to the pandemic, as well as new pressures on contract terms and conditions, Willis Towers Watson said today.

Pacific Gas and Electricity (PG&E), the wildfire stricken California focused electrical utility operator, has said that it could face more than $600 million of losses from the 2019 Kincade wildfire if its equipment is found liable for the fire’s ignition.

The New York Metropolitan Transportation Authority’s (MTA) new  MetroCat Re Ltd. (Series 2020-1) catastrophe bond has now been priced, but at the top-end of the revised guidance after investors sought a higher return for the risk, with the deal also sticking at $100 million in size.

Palomar Insurance Holdings, the speciality California-based insurer that provides largely catastrophe exposed property covers, cancelled its plans to renew its maturing catastrophe bond transaction in March, when it saw the way pricing and terms were firming in the insurance-linked securities (ILS) market.

Global insurance and reinsurance group Everest Re has significantly grown its underwriting book in the first-quarter of the year, reporting 21% growth in net premiums written in a quarter marred by Covid-19 pandemic related losses but in which it still managed to report a profit.