Catastrophe bonds and insurance-linked securities news

Insured claims paid by FEMA’s National Flood Insurance Program (NFIP) after hurricane Ian have now reached above $3.4 billion, bringing the figure close to the lower-end of its most recent loss estimate for the major storm, Artemis understands.

The UK’s Prudential Regulation Authority (PRA) of the Bank of England, the main financial regulator, continues to place great emphasis on making its insurance-linked securities (ILS) regulatory regime a success and is now promising “accelerated authorisation” for what it terms “credible” sponsors.

When it comes to underwriting cyber risks, capital, whether traditional insurance and reinsurance, or alternative from the insurance-linked securities (ILS) market, “has to be rewarded”, Matt Harrison from risk modelling and analytics specialist Moody’s RMS, told us in our latest Artemis Live interview.

RenaissanceRe, the global reinsurance company and third-party capital manager, continued to have great success in raising funds from third-party investors for its range of joint-venture and insurance-linked securities (ILS) structures, adding just over $767 million so far in 2023, with its Medici catastrophe bond fund strategy taking more than half the inflows.

US primary insurance player Allstate is back in the catastrophe bond market seeking protection for its Florida businesses, with a target for at least $250 million of multi-peril collateralized reinsurance from this Sanders Re III Ltd. (Series 2023-2) issuance.

USAA, the primary military mutual insurance company, has successfully doubled in size its 40th catastrophe bond under the Residential Re name, with the company set to benefit from $400 million in multi-peril reinsurance protection from the Residential Reinsurance 2023 Limited (Series 2023-1) issuance.

France headquartered global reinsurance company SCOR has returned to the catastrophe bond market to boost its retrocession arrangements, targeting at least $75 million of multi-peril protection from an Atlas Capital DAC (Series 2023-1) issuance.

New York transport operator the Metropolitan Transportation Authority (MTA) is back in the catastrophe bond market with what will be its fourth issuance, seeking a $75 million or larger renewal of its parametric storm surge protection from a new MetroCat Re Ltd. (Series 2023-1) transaction.

Inver Re, the Ardonagh Group’s reinsurance broking arm, has made a key hire in taking well-known industry executive Tom Johansmeyer from Verisk’s PCS unit, to become the brokers’ new Global Head of Index products, Artemis has learned.

Adopting a defensive position, with respect to the 2022 hurricane season, has paid off for an industry loss warranty (ILW) focused investment strategy, according to the CEO of the City National Rochdale Select Strategies Fund.