Catastrophe bonds and insurance-linked securities news

Fidelis Insurance Holdings Limited, the specialty insurance and reinsurance firm launched by Richard Brindle, has expanded its capital base again thanks to a new strategic investment from an intriguing source, US insurance giant The Travelers Companies Inc.

Were the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) to recognise the maturity of the catastrophe bond marketplace and consider it a public market, it would help both the efficiency and transparency of this part of the insurance-linked securities (ILS) industry, according to Morton Lane.

Re/insurer MS Amlin intends to renew its novel Phoenix 1 Re reinsurance sidecar and expects the vehicle to become an important component of its strategy in the Asia region, according to William Ho, Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of MS Amlin Asia Pacific, and Head of Reinsurance for Asia, MS Amlin.

The unexpected nature of Covid-19 related business interruption (BI) losses is troubling for the market, and it could be another two years before the insurance-linked securities (ILS) industry fully understands the impact, according to leading ILS investors.

Swiss Re has successfully upsized its new Vita Capital VI Limited (Series 2021-1) mortality catastrophe bond transaction to $120 million, just below its revised upper-end target for the deal.

The impact and subsequent loss creep from typhoon Jebi in Japan in 2018 caught many insurance-linked securities (ILS) investors by surprise, but the eventual deviation from initial vendor model loss estimates doesn’t translate to a fundamental issue with the models themselves, say industry experts.

One of the biggest challenges to providing fully environmental, social and governance (ESG) aligned investment strategies in the insurance-linked securities (ILS) market is the inability to know what really lies beneath every transaction, in terms of what has been underwritten by cedents along the market chain.

Knowledge and understanding of the insurance-linked securities (ILS) asset class is on the rise in Asia, and while local expertise is a real benefit, it’s also vitally important to communicate early and persistently with the investor base, according to industry experts.

The fragmentation of the Asia region means that for insurance-linked securities (ILS) managers, it’s more practical to focus on the locations with the more mature and larger institutional market, according to Timothy Yip, Executive Director at ILS Advisers.

Highlighted by the efforts of Singapore and more recently Hong Kong, there’s an exciting and growing opportunity for the insurance-linked securities (ILS) sector to play a meaningful role in the Asia region, according to industry experts.