Archive for June, 2021

The project to issue a first catastrophe bond to benefit Jamaica has made further progress this month, with an important grant approval now received and the World Bank facilitated cat bond deal launch now imminent.

The reinsurance broking market continues to expand in terms of choice, with a new specialist set to be launched by the Ardonagh Group, who have announced Inver Re as a new reinsurance broker brand formed after its acquisition of Corant Global.

Defending itself in the courts against the United States Department of Justice’s objections to its proposed merger with rival insurance and reinsurance broker Willis Towers Watson (WTW), Aon has said that it would be “unacceptable” for its transaction to fail just because of a late trial date proposed by the DoJ.

Amundi US Investment Management’s dedicated insurance-linked securities (ILS) mutual investment fund has increased in size again during the last quarter, reaching a record size for the strategy of $1 billion in net ILS assets as of April 30th 2021.

The value of divestments needed to get insurance and reinsurance broker Aon’s acquisition of rival Willis Towers Watson (WTW) over the line continues to increase, with South Africa the latest country who’s competition authority has requested a remedy specific to its marketplace.

Global reinsurance broker Guy Carpenter has announced the hiring of James Johns from Willis Re and Joshua O’Donoghue from Aon, who both join the brokers London non-marine specialty team, bringing additional property catastrophe and retrocession expertise.

Things are hotting up in the weather risk management and parametric risk transfer technology space and Arbol, a smart contract, parametric risk transfer and weather insurance marketplace technology provider is one of the companies leading the charge.

We understand from sources that issuance of the Astro Re Pte. Ltd. (Series 2021-1) catastrophe bond that is being sponsored by U.S. primary insurance group Frontline Insurance on behalf of itself and subsidiary First Protective, has been slower than anticipated and now the transaction is expected to fall into the third-quarter.

The mismatch between capital supply and demand is now much lower than it was a year ago, with factors including capital raises and the freeing up of trapped ILS capital driving a resurgence, according to David Flandro of HX Analytics.

Parsyl Inc., a provider of data-driven, sensor-based systems that are used in parametric risk transfer and insurance, has made a pay-out under a temperature linked policy in less than 8 hours.