Reinsurance News

Real-time flood forecasting tech firm Previsico has partnered with specialist parametric MGA and insurer Descartes Underwriting to deliver a flood insurance product for UK commercial firms that features a trigger based on sensor data, warnings and forecasts of water depths.

Having originally said that insurance and reinsurance market losses from the Los Angeles, California wildfires were likely to “notably exceed $10 billion,” reinsurance broker Gallagher Re has now issued an updated estimate range, for an industry loss of between $20 billion and $30 billion.

CoreLogic, the risk modelling and catastrophe data company, has provided an initial estimate for insured losses from the Los Angeles, California wildfires, saying the total is expected to fall in a range from $35 billion to as high as $45 billion.

Howden’s capital markets and insurance-linked securities (ILS) specialist unit, Howden Capital Markets & Advisory (HCMA), has announced that Philipp Kusche, who serves as the firm’s Global Head of ILS & Capital Solutions, will take on an expanded role as Chairman of HCMA, Europe, with Mitchell Rosenberg becoming Co-Head of Global ILS.

Demand for non-marine retrocession capacity, which is largely property and catastrophe focused, was relatively stable at the key 1/1 renewals, but Gallagher Re noted that supply of capital for these opportunities was up resulting in more favourable conditions for buyers.

The California Earthquake Authority (CEA) is discussing the need for either a pre-funded subsequent or second-event funding tower (with risk transfer and reinsurance perhaps a part of it), or the infrastructure for one, that would support its functions after a significant earthquake loss that depletes its claims paying ability.

FEMA has renewed the National Flood Insurance Program’s (NFIP) traditional reinsurance tower for 2025, securing 22% more in protection for this calendar year, at just over $757.8 million, from a broader panel of reinsurer counterparties.

With wildfires becoming a more recurring peril for the California property insurance market, alternative capital may be available to provide coverage, including through multiple-peril alternative reinsurance capital instruments, however “pricing is likely to remain a sticking point” according to analysts at Morningstar DBRS.

Stone Ridge Asset Management, the New York based alternative risk premia focused investment manager, appears to have taken the strongest action in terms of marking down its mutual catastrophe bond and insurance-linked securities (ILS) funds on potential exposure to the California wildfires, while most other strategies in the market have barely moved.

Euler ILS Partners, the specialist insurance-linked securities (ILS) investment manager, has issued an event report for the California wildfires, saying the company believes the insurance industry loss may be between $15 billion and $17 billion, but highlighting this depends on costs related to factors such as business interruption and additional living expenses.