Another of the UK’s largest pension funds, the Railways Pension Scheme which provides pensions to workers from the UK’s privatised rail industry and has net assets of over £20 billion, has made an allocation to reinsurance in the last year or so.

Bermuda-based property and casualty reinsurance firm Third Point Reinsurance Ltd., backed by hedge fund manager Dan Loeb’s Third Point LLC, has improved its combined ratio in the second quarter but the hedge funds investment results declined.

The popularity of the cat bond lite, or private catastrophe bond or insurance-linked security (ILS) issuance, continues apace with $242m of new risk capital issued through the recognised private cat bond issuance platforms so far in 2014.

Typhoon Halong, no longer a super typhoon having weakened a little, is now a category 1 equivalent typhoon with sustained winds of around 85mph and gusts of 105mph but threatens Japan with a direct hit of winds, torrential rains, floods and a storm surge.

The proliferation of risk models and technical tools for understanding risks in the reinsurance industry would lead you to believe that the market would become more efficient, but so far this is not the case, according to RenaissanceRe CEO Kevin O’Donnell.

Hawaii is being threatened by two hurricane landfalls in the coming days, as first hurricane Iselle makes its way towards a direct hit on Big Island, before hurricane Julio follows along just a couple of days later.

The world’s largest reinsurance firm Munich Re announced its quarterly results this morning, stating the need for continued price discipline and consistent cycle management in the competitive market environment, but that it remains on target for the year.

Tropical Storm Risk (TSR), the academic initiative which partners with re/insurance industry and science to provide tropical weather forecasts, is the second forecaster so far to increase their prediction for the 2014 Atlantic tropical storm and hurricane season.