Posts by Artemis Team, Author at Artemis.bm - Page 2 of 2

The industry has seen improved pricing in the property catastrophe reinsurance market during 2019, a correction that shows the reinsurance cycle is still relevant, according to Shiv Kumar.

ILS investors have had a significant reaction to two years of major natural catastrophe events where losses increased from initial estimates. Hurricane Irma and last year’s Typhoon Jebi have led to an “emotional reaction” according to Niklaus Hilti, Head of Credit Suisse’s insurance-linked securities (ILS) division.

Describing Hurricane Dorian as a near miss for the re/insurance sector, Dirk Lohmann, Head of ILS specialist asset manager Schroder Secquaero, said it was too early to predict the potential impact of Typhoon Faxai, which made landfall in the Chiba prefecture of Japan on Monday.

Speaking to Artemis from the SCOR lounge in Monte Carlo, Jean-Paul Conoscente, chief executive of SCOR Global P&C, outlined the company’s ambitious plans to place ILS at the heart of the business.

The prolonged low interest rate environment will maintain the focus on underwriting profitability as the industry moves towards the 1 January 2020 renewals, thinks Mike Van Slooten, Head of Business Intelligence, Aon’s Reinsurance Solutions.

How transparent are ILS funds being when they factor in trapped collateral into their estimated returns? This was the question posed by Darren Redhead, chief executive of Lancashire-owned Kinesis Capital Management when he spoke to Artemis on the eve of the Rendez-Vous de Septembre in Monte Carlo.

A third year of sizable catastrophe losses could see some ILS investors exit the market and “change the capital market mechanism”, according to Michael Millette, founder and managing partner of Hudson Structured Capital Management.

Signs of an impending recession will reaffirm support for ILS as an asset class, in spite of more muted investor sentiment over the past 12 months, according to Luca Albertini, chief executive and founding partner at Leadenhall Capital Parners LLP.

The past 12 months have proved the ILS markets are rational, thinks Frank Majors, co-CEO at Nephila Advisors, with investors demonstrating both staying power and price discipline

Losses borne out of major natural catastrophe events in 2017 and 2018, including Cyclone Jebi in Japan last year and the record-breaking California wildfires, has limited the supply of “high-volume, cheap retrocession” according to Torsten Jeworrek, member of the board of management, Munich Re.