Archive for July, 2020

FedNat Holding Company, the U.S. primary insurance carrier group, has bolstered its reinsurance program for the 2020-2021 season, adding coverage to reduce its second and third event retentions, plus a non-Florida quota share and a Florida specific quota share with Swiss Re.

With reinsurance pricing firming broadly and expected to continue to do so, one of the dynamics we expect to see in the marketplace is increasing competition, as the improved rate environment attracts some underwriters back to the market.

The Alturas Re Ltd. collateralised reinsurance sidecar vehicle of global specialist re/insurer AXIS Capital has completed a new issuance of 3,628 preferred shares, meaning options for third-party investors to access the returns of AXIS’ underwriting business seemingly expand.

The UK market for longevity risk transfer and reinsurance has remained resilient during the Covid-19 pandemic, according to Prudential Retirement, a business unit of Prudential Financial, Inc., which has closed $1.7 billion of longevity reinsurance deals in the first-half of this year.

The alternative, or third-party reinsurance capital market, has permanently altered the structure of reinsurers and will continue to do so moving forward, according to Dr. Morton Lane, President, Lane Financial LLC, and Director, The University of Illinois in Urbana-Champaign.

Reinsurance market price rises are expected to catch-up to the levels seen across primary and retrocession markets in recent months, flattening out the u-shaped marketplace and providing greater opportunities for underwriters and ILS investors to enhance their returns.

Frederik Eloff and James Karim, who previously worked together at a Deutsche Bank start-up ILS fund management unit, have together launched insurtech start-up Marrikel, which positions itself as a reinsurance broking platform.

Transmission equipment owned and operated by Pacific Gas and Electricity (PG&E) has been deemed to be the cause of the 2019 Kincade wildfire in Sonoma County California, which could put the company and its insurers on the hook for over $600 million of costs.

The participation of the capital markets in financing the world’s most pressing risks is an important source of capacity and investors could support up to $2 billion of capacity to back pandemic catastrophe bonds, Hannover Re CEO Jean-Jacques Henchoz explained in a recent interview.

The insurance and reinsurance market loss estimate for the severe hailstorms that struck the southeastern region of Australia in January 2020 is now seen as A$1.811 billion by PERILS, as the group adds motor claims to its tally and says the property loss has risen 44%.