Archive for January, 2022

After another challenging year of catastrophe losses in 2021, Bermuda based reinsurance firm and third-party capital manager RenaissanceRe went into the January 2022 renewals with its Upsilon collateralized reinsurance and retrocession vehicle significantly smaller than the prior year, its CEO revealed today.

With capital still abundant, the reinsurance hardening seen at recent renewals is assumed to be driven by risk aversion this time around, but the very factors driving risk and pricing higher are also seen as tailwinds for the re/insurance sector longer-term, by investment banking giant Goldman Sachs.

Prologis, Inc., the logistics, warehousing and supply-chain focused real estate owner and investor that sponsored its first catastrophe bond in December, a $95 million Logistics Re Ltd. (Series 2021-1) cat bond, has highlighted the support of Hemant Shah’s artificial intelligence property data and analytics firm, Archipelago.

At a time when London’s market share in reinsurance has stagnated, the insurance-linked securities (ILS) sector in the United Kingdom and its failure to gain traction so far is an example of regulation failing to support the market’s ambitions, representatives of the House of Lords heard in a hearing yesterday.

RenaissanceRe, the Bermuda-based reinsurance firm and third-party capital management specialist, saw strong inflows from investors in time for the January renewal season, as its Capital Partners unit raised $453 million from external investors.

Global economic losses from natural catastrophes reached $343 billion in 2021, but only $130 billion of the total was covered by insurance or reinsurance, which Aon’s President Eric Andersen said demonstrates both a protection and an innovation gap, when it comes to climate risk.

The market for subordinated insurance debt bonds is expected to bottom out soon, as more clarity is gained on the future direction of interest rates. But while this can slow issuance of insurance bonds and debt, specialist investment manager Plenum Investments believes an opportunity is emerging for investors to capitalise on market forces.

The triggering and impending $52.5 million payout of the Philippines catastrophe bond by recent typhoon Rai (known in the Philippines as Odette), demonstrates a “tangible result” of the country’s disaster risk financing work, according to its Finance Secretary.

After announcing that one of Switzerland’s cantonal banks, Graubündner Kantonalbank, is taking a 30% stake in the Zurich-headquartered catastrophe bond, insurance-linked securities (ILS) and reinsurance linked investment fund manager, Twelve Capital explained to us that this brings stability to its shareholder base.

Aetna, the health, medical and benefits insurance unit of CVS Health, has now priced its thirteenth Vitality Re health insurance catastrophe bond structure and is on track to secure the targeted $200m of reinsurance from its Vitality Re XIII Ltd (Series 2022) transaction, with pricing at the mid and top-ends of guidance.