Insurance & reinsurance focus at AXIS a unique investor opportunity: Katie Partington

As Bermuda-based carrier AXIS Capital continues to leverage third-party capital to build its portfolio, the relationship between the company’s insurance and reinsurance operations is a unique opportunity for investors, according to Katie Partington, Chief Underwriting Officer (CUO) of Reinsurance.

Artemis spoke with AXIS Capital executives recently as part of a series of sponsor showcase video interviews for the upcoming Artemis ILS NYC 2022 conference, held April 22^nd in New York City.

The insightful discussion, now available to view in full, explored numerous issues within the insurance-linked securities (ILS) and reinsurance space, from the importance of partnerships and alignment of interests, to how AXIS utilises alternative capital within its underwriting, the upcoming renewals and more.

AXIS Capital has been leveraging third-party capital within its underwriting for more than 10 years now. From the discussion with Artemis it’s clear that the re/insurer is eager to expand its ILS activities and, importantly, the firm sees a very real opportunity in areas outside of the familiar property and catastrophe space.

“Looking at a company like AXIS, we’ve selected a certain portfolio for our publicly traded company, but we definitely have expertise in areas where we may want to explore further investor support,” said Partington. “I think that’s a really important point that can help us access business for investors that might not be something we choose for our overall public portfolio. And, I think this is a real opportunity for investors.”

According to Partington, one of the main assets AXIS brings to the table for ILS investors is the strong connection between the reinsurance and insurance side of the business.

“We spend a lot of time at AXIS talking about the opportunities in certain lines of business, and weighing the opportunities between the two distribution channels, insurance and reinsurance.

“We have a really unique position here to bring to investors, to talk to them about accessing that risk versus insurance or reinsurance,” she explained.

As an example, Partington highlighted the expanding cyber risk market; an area where AXIS has a strong footprint on the primary side and has established a lot of expertise.

“Cyber has got, I think, the real opportunity to have more investor appetite, more investor capital allocated to it. It’s been a tight space, it’s a changing space, and it’s also a space which is relatively short-tail as well. I think this would be a great area for investors to continue to explore,” said Partington.

“Also, I think, emerging market, emerging risk and really looking at climate risks as well. Or, maybe we could find some investors who have different time horizons than the usual publicly traded investors of some of the companies that might be willing to explore putting capital behind different solutions. Or, even putting capital behind solutions combined with risk mitigation.

“I think this could be a really interesting space for investors to explore. So, I definitely think there’s more to unpack than just the property space,” she concluded.

Alongside Partington, Artemis was joined by Ann Haugh, President of Global Property, Reinsurance, and Chris Caponigro, Global Head of AXIS ILS, the firm’s rebranded third-party capital unit.

Hear more on how re/insurers are embracing insurance-linked securities at the upcoming Artemis ILS NYC 2022 conference in New York on April 22nd (get your ticket today).

For details and to register for the conference, visit the event website: www.artemis.bm/ils-nyc-2022/.

The full video interview is embedded below and can also be viewed in full, along with previous Artemis Live video interviews here.

You can also listen in audio to our interviews by subscribing to the Artemis Live podcast here.

View all of our kind sponsors of the ILS NYC 2022 conference below:

For all enquiries regarding sponsorship opportunities please contact [email protected]