Archive for January, 2021

Broking, advisory, benefits and consulting giants Aon and Willis Towers Watson have defended their merger, with a response to the New Zealand Commerce Commission that cites alternative reinsurance capital, disintermediation by the big four and marketplaces such as Tremor, as threats to their own combined business.

The U.S. Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) has returned to the insurance-linked securities (ILS) market for its fourth catastrophe bond issuance, a currently $350 million FloodSmart Re Ltd. (Series 2021-1) transaction, seeking additional flood reinsurance coverage from the capital market for its National Flood Insurance Program (NFIP).

AXA XL, the commercial property & casualty insurance and reinsurance arm of the AXA Group, promoted Niraj Patel to lead alternative capital activities as Head of AXA XL ILS Capital Management in late 2020, reporting to Peter Martin, who was also promoted to Head of Reinsurance Capital Management.

AXIS Re, the global reinsurance business of specialty re/insurer AXIS Capital, has appointed Katie Partington Howarth, who was formerly at Argo, as the new Chief Underwriting Officer for all of its reinsurance activities.

QBE, the Australian headquartered global insurance and reinsurance group, is centralising all of its global inwards reinsurance underwriting business to be managed in London under Steve Postlewhite.

The January reinsurance renewals fell well short of hard market price increases, with part of the reason being new capacity from both incumbents and new entrants, according to AXIS Capital CEO Albert Benchimol.

Reflecting the fact insurance-linked securities (ILS) and catastrophe bond investors continue to have minimum return requirements, the pricing on Aetna’s twelfth and $200 million health insurance linked ILS deal, the Vitality Re XII Ltd (Series 2021) transaction, is likely to settle at the top-end of guidance.

A new start-up aims to enhance the economic resilience of the world’s businesses, by filling business interruption coverage gaps using advanced technology such as machine learning and by leveraging insurance-linked securities (ILS) structures to connect this emerging risk class with capital market investors.

The recent ruling from the UK Supreme Court, that found largely in favour of insurance policyholders in the Financial Conduct Authority’s (FCA)’s business interruption insurance test case appeals, is not expected to drive significant additional losses through to reinsurance, Fitch Ratings has said.

RenaissanceRe, the Bermuda-based reinsurance firm and third-party capital management specialist, held true to its forecast and returned some capital from its Upsilon collateralized reinsurance and retrocession vehicle to investors around the renewals, underwriting a slightly smaller portfolio for the vehicle as a result.