Archive for November, 2023

In another indication of rising property catastrophe reinsurance rate expectations for European perils, the Taranis Reinsurance DAC 2023 catastrophe bond issuance for Crédit Agricole subsidiary insurer Pacifica has seen its spreads widen during marketing, but at the same time the insurer is now targeting up to €180 million of reinsurance from the deal.

Catastrophe exposed commercial property insurance renewals are expected to see some of the biggest rate gains in 2024, as pressure continues and a challenged reinsurance market drives buyers towards alternative solutions, to offset rising rates.

White Mountains has marked-up the valuation of its stake in insurance-linked securities (ILS) investment fund manager and collateralised reinsurance underwriter Elementum Advisors, LLC, even though the proportion of the ILS manager that it owns had been reduced.

Investors in insurance-linked securities (ILS) still haven’t got over the years of “paltry” returns they’ve seen from the asset class since 2017, according to AM Best, but this is one driver for the continuation of the hard market, as well as the much improved coverage terms being agreed to in ILS contracts.

Having spent time in Bermuda and attended the recent PwC Insurance Summit on the island, the equity analyst team at BMO Capital Markets has concluded that the insurance and reinsurance industry is suffering a lack of confidence in its risk models, which they say has been a key driver in capital flight and retrenching higher.

Privately placed, or cat bond lite transactions continue to contribute to total catastrophe bond issuance, although so far in 2023, the total value of deals issued is below the 10-year average, according to Artemis’ Deal Directory.

Here are the ten most popular news articles, week ending November 26th 2023, covering catastrophe bonds, ILS, reinsurance capital and related risk transfer topics. To ensure you never miss a thing subscribe to the weekly Artemis email newsletter updates or get our email alerts for every article we publish.

SCOR Investment Partners, the asset management arm of the French reinsurance group and a manager of insurance-linked securities (ILS) funds, has announced a new Chief Executive Officer (CEO) appointment, with long-standing executive Louis Bourrousse taking over the top-position.

We’ve learned that the hurricane Ian side pocket investment situation has improved considerably for some insurance-linked securities (ILS) fund managers, with a number of key exposures now failing to reach the levels of cedent loss needed to attach coverage in recent weeks.

According to Artemis’ Deal Directory data, which tracks issuances of catastrophe bonds and related insurance-linked securities, overall issuance year-to-date has already reached $12.5 billion, while issuance of Rule 144A property cat bonds alone is now above $11.5 billion in 2023.