Archive for February, 2021

The reinsurance market is not in a hard market and in fact rate increases seen at the January 2021 renewal season are only seen as adequate by Moody’s, who believe that reinsurance prices must keep rising for adequate risk-adjusted returns to be achievable.

Hong Kong’s Government has revealed some of the details of its proposed insurance-linked securities (ILS) grant scheme, through which it will pay a share of issuance costs for any ILS structures issued out of the Special Administrative Region.

Winter storm Uri is destined to become a record insurance and reinsurance market loss for a winter weather event in the United States and while the impacts may be in the double-digit billions of dollars, the ILS market may be protected from too significant a share.

While the entry of third-party, or alternative, reinsurance capital slowed after recent heavy catastrophe years and resulting challenges they brought, those difficulties also “affirmed the persistence of third-party capital owners,” rating agency AM Best has said.

France headquartered global reinsurance firm SCOR noted this morning that the COVID-19 coronavirus pandemic is creating the conditions for stronger reinsurance growth, alongside positive pricing dynamics, which it puts down to a general increase in risk aversion as a result of the pandemic crisis.

Twelve Capital, the Zurich headquartered insurance and reinsurance linked investment fund manager, has almost doubled the size of its flagship UCITS catastrophe bond fund in a year.

The California Earthquake Authority (CEA) has lifted its target size for its first catastrophe bond transaction of 2021, now seeking up to $215 million of fully collateralized earthquake reinsurance protection with the Ursa Re II Ltd. (Series 2021-1)  issuance.

The North Carolina Insurance Underwriting Association (NCIUA) is back in the catastrophe bond market with its first issuance of 2021, a currently $100 million Cape Lookout Re Ltd. (Series 2021-1) transaction that will sit in the higher layers of its reinsurance tower.

Conduit Re, a Class of 2021 reinsurance start-up that raised its close to $1.1 billion of capital in an initial public offering (IPO) and listing before it had even underwritten any business, got off to a “flying start” according to its Executive Chairman Neil Eckert.

U.S. primary insurance giant Allstate has revealed that it expects to receive around $605 million in subrogation recoveries on claims related to the California wildfires, with a significant percentage already booked.