Catastrophe bonds and insurance-linked securities news

Hurricane Genevieve remains a strong category 3 hurricane as it barrels towards the Baja Peninsula of Mexico in the Pacific, with sustained winds of 115 mph and higher gusts, but with the central pressure of the storm now rising it suggests there is no threat to the World Bank issued parametric Mexico catastrophe bonds.

We’ve published a new Artemis Live video interview, featuring Peter Giacone, Managing Director and Global Head of Insurance at Kroll Bond Rating Agency (KBRA), who joined us to discuss evolving investor appetites and the ILS market.

As the global effects of the Covid-19 coronavirus pandemic were being felt across financial markets earlier this year, the insurance-linked securities (ILS) market was not immune and Swiss Re notes that the dislocation caused ILS new issuance spreads to widen by 20% to 30%.

For the second-quarter of 2020, the medical benefit claims ratio reported by CVS-owned health insurer Aetna dropped even further below levels where its Vitality Re series of health insurance-linked securities (ILS) transactions could be triggered.

In renewing its $2.1 billion reinsurance and catastrophe bond program for 2020, the Texas Windstorm Insurance Association (TWIA) paid some 19% more in terms of overall rate-on-line (ROL) compared to the prior year.

As Singapore evolves as an insurance-linked securities (ILS) domicile and enables regulatory, legal and tax changes, the ability of the region to facilitate ILS in all forms will attract a growing number of new sponsors, according to industry experts.

AXIS Capital, the Bermuda headquartered specialty insurance and reinsurance player, elected to let one of its catastrophe bonds expire without renewal this year, as it shifted its focus to buying more reinsurance lower-down in the tower to reduce its PML’s.

The South American nation of Brazil is the latest to target the creation of a framework for legislation and a regulatory regime to allow for the issuance of insurance-linked securities (ILS) in the country, as it looks to ILS as a possible avenue to help its growing re/insurance industry further expand.

Australian primary insurance group IAG has revealed that its Orchard ILS Pte Ltd catastrophe bond was triggered and then fully exhausted by claims suffered from the severe bushfire season in the country.

The Legislative Council of the Government of Hong Kong has now passed its new insurance legislation to allow for insurance-linked securities (ILS) such as catastrophe bonds to be issued there.