Significant issuance of property catastrophe bonds is expected in 2020, with a large amount of maturities likely to drive renewal issues, according to broker Aon.

U.S. primary insurer Travelers has renewed some of its core catastrophe reinsurance treaties at the January 2020 renewals and its aggregate coverage has changed significantly, with the insurer set to retain a far greater share of its losses this year.

Nephila Capital, the largest manager of mainly catastrophe and weather insurance linked securities and reinsurance linked assets, has lined up as one of the reinsurers supporting a technology-led cyber insurance company named Cowbell Cyber, signalling a step in the direction of specialty lines underwriting.

The number of special purpose insurers (SPI’s) registered in Bermuda fell in 2019, in-line with activity in the insurance-linked securities (ILS) sector. But overall new licenses for ILS related vehicles remained very strong.

Three tranches of catastrophe bonds exposed to Japanese typhoon wind damage have traded up around 10% in recent weeks, as the market’s view of how large the eventual industry losses from typhoon Jebi and Hagibis will be has moderated somewhat.

Insurance and perhaps reinsurance industry losses from the recent severe hail storm outbreaks across southeastern Australia have risen again, jumping another 26% to hit A$514 million (around US $355m) in the last day.

Reinsurance and its ability to transfer risk into a diversified pool of capital can play a vital role in helping the world to mitigate the negative effects of a changing climate and smooth volatility for carbon-free ventures, the CEO of Swiss Re has explained.

The price guidance has fallen for both of the tranches of notes to be issued as part of Aetna’s latest insurance-linked securities (ILS) transaction Vitality Re XI Ltd. (Series 2020) signalling strong investor appetite for what has become an annual diversifying peril for some investors in the sector.

Insurance and reinsurance broking group BMS has announced a new hire bringing additional ILS market expertise to the brokers U.S. operations, with Jani Kohonen set to join the company from his most recent role at StarStone.

Property Claim Services (PCS) has expanded its activities around the world with the introduction of new regions where its industry loss data aggregation and index reporting services are available and the market is responding, with new transactions being placed using PCS data as a trigger source.

Natural catastrophe events cost the global economy an estimated $232 billion in 2019, while the insurance and reinsurance industry is estimated to have paid for roughly 31% of this at $72 billion, according to broker Aon.

The insurance and perhaps reinsurance market loss from the recent severe convective storms and large hail events in Australia is estimated to have risen by 27% in just one day, reaching A$407 million (around US $280m) as claims start pouring in.