Insurance Linked Investments

Two insurance-linked securities (ILS) funds operated by Zurich based specialist catastrophe bond and ILS investment manager Plenum Investments have been accredited with a sustainability FNG Label by the German “Forum Nachhaltige Geldanlagen e.V.”

Within both the market and contracts the exclusion of communicable diseases is unsurprisingly a key focus, but there are other, similarly difficult to predict losses that companies should be examining, according to industry experts.

China’s western region and in particular the municipality of Chongqing with its population of over 31 million, which includes the megacity of the same name, could benefit from cooperation on topics such as disaster insurance, with catastrophe bonds seen as an opportunity, according to the Singapore government’s Monetary Authority.

SCOR Investment Partners, the asset management company of the global reinsurance group SCOR, has continued to add new capital to one of its core insurance-linked securities (ILS) fund strategies, the Atropos, which has now exceeded the $1 billion mark in terms of assets under management.

The use of advanced technology and improvements in data and analytics to develop innovative parametric triggers is a stimulating proposition, both in the natural catastrophe space and beyond, according to Jonathan Clark, Head of Public Sector at reinsurance broker Guy Carpenter.

The World Bank’s 2017 pandemic catastrophe bond has provided a blueprint for how insurance-linked securities (ILS) technology can be leveraged to transfer pandemic risk, according to Joanna Syroka, Director of New Markets, Fermat Capital Management, LLC.

INSU Acquisition Corp. II, the second insurance, reinsurance and insurtech investment focused Special Purpose Acquisition Company (SPAC) launched by fixed income financial services focused investment specialist Cohen & Company, LLC, is taking insurtech Metromile public in a deal that also sees ILS and reinsurance investment manager Hudson Structured participating.

The CATCo Reinsurance Opportunities Fund Ltd., Markel CATCo Investment Management’s listed retrocession focused investment fund, has successfully secured another release of trapped capital which will be returned to its investors.

Global reinsurance firm Hannover Re has the capital markets at the heart of its core catastrophe retrocession program, with investors supporting some 80% of its aggregate retro and 78% of its Cat XL coverage through K-Cessions.

The combination of catastrophe bonds alongside insurance bonds within an investment portfolio can generate a “hidden source of alpha” for investors, offering them an “untapped source of risk premium”, specialist ILS investment manager Twelve Capital has said.