Reinsurance News

Long-standing Bermuda-based employee Mark Twite has been promoted to become the Chief Executive Officer (CEO), Bermuda of AXA XL Reinsurance, the reinsurance underwriting arm of AXA XL.

Another data point for those looking at the implications of major hurricane Ian’s path through Florida, rating agency Fitch says the insurance and reinsurance market loss is likely up to $40 billion.

Coming on the heels of five heavy catastrophe loss years, major hurricane Ian’s impacts in Florida and the resulting insurance, reinsurance and ILS market loss, could trigger a wholesale reevaluation of the provision of catastrophe insurance protection, according to Michael Millette.

Hurricane Ian’s impact is likely to cause losses to some Florida focused indemnity catastrophe bonds, as well as to some of the NFIP’s FloodSmart Re cat bond series, according to investment manager Twelve Capital.

Major hurricane Ian is estimated to have caused an insurance and reinsurance industry loss of between $28 billion and $47 billion just from wind and storm surge damage in Florida, according to CoreLogic.

Another indication of the impacts of hurricane Ian for the insurance-linked securities (ILS) market is in how the publicly available net asset values of mutual catastrophe bond, ILS and reinsurance linked investment funds have been moving.

The economic loss from major hurricane Ian’s impacts in Florida has been initially estimated at around $65 billion by global GIS and geospatial technology company RMSI.

Some further insight on the potential quantum of industry loss faced by the insurance, reinsurance and ILS market from major hurricane Ian, as KBW analyst Meyer Shields said he believes the relatively rapid weakening of the storm after landfall could mean losses settle closer to the bottom of a $32.5 billion to $40 billion range.

Bernina Re Ltd., the Bermuda based reinsurance underwriting and transformer vehicle backed by capital from funds managed by Credit Suisse Insurance Linked Strategies Ltd., has made a key appointment in hiring well-known executive Will Haddrell from startup Kettle.

According to sources of and data seen by Artemis, last night catastrophe risk modelling specialists had been hinting at major hurricane Ian having the potential to deliver a global insurance, reinsurance and ILS market loss of more than $50 billion, in updates sent to their clients.