Archive for July, 2020

Catastrophe bond issuance in the first-half of 2020 has been one of the bright spots in the insurance-linked securities (ILS) and alternative reinsurance capital market, as issuance was buoyed by the assets robust performance through the Covid-19 pandemic.

Catastrophe risk modelling specialist AIR Worldwide announced this week some timely updates to its Hurricane and Inland Flood Models for the United States.

Howden Broking Group, which is in the process of bringing together the retail focused Howden with the more specialty insurance and reinsurance focused RKH under one brand, has named a new Chair as it looks to position itself as a challenger to the majors.

It’s perhaps not the level of reinsurance rate increase that many have been hoping for, after the 20%+ rises seen across April and mid-year renewal cycles, but analysts at Morgan Stanley are bullish that January 2021 will see the highest increases since 2018.

It’s clear that strategies on underwriting catastrophe risks have diverged in the reinsurance sector, with some traditional companies filling their boots on higher rates, but others pulling back and offloading the risks to their third-party capital vehicles.

Our online & virtual ILS Asia 2020 conference concluded yesterday and now every session is available to watch on-demand at your leisure.

PGGM, the Dutch pension fund administrator and investment manager that has become the largest single source of assets in the insurance-linked securities (ILS) market, has expanded and deepened its private quota share sidecar relationship with reinsurance firm Swiss Re.

In an extensive and insightful keynote at the virtually held Artemis ILS Asia 2020 conference (now available on-demand), Head of PCS, Tom Johansmeyer discussed a number of Covid-19 loss scenarios, including the potential combined impacts of the virus and strike riot, civil commotion (SRCC) in the U.S.

Aggregate catastrophe losses suffered by U.S. primary insurance giant Allstate have risen to almost $1.2 billion for the second-quarter of 2020, with the pace of severe weather losses falling slightly in June.

LGT ILS Partners, the specialist dedicated insurance-linked securities (ILS) investments unit of the private bank and asset manager, is considering ways to enable equity investments to be made into its rated Class 3A reinsurance underwriting vehicle Lumen Re.