Reinsurance News

With reinsurance sidecars having emerged as a key capital instrument for re/insurers aiming to utilise third-party capital, the current growth and momentum within the space has been concentrated in ceded reinsurance strategies, casualty-focused portfolios; and MGAs, MGUs and capital-light entities, according to broker Guy Carpenter.

According to Hiscox Re & ILS, successful navigation of the reinsurance cycle requires proactive portfolio management, where strategic capital allocation plays a central role alongside diversification, retention strategy, and asset allocation, traits that are all the more important at phases in the market cycle such as we see today.

The January 1st 2026 reinsurance renewals saw “accelerated softening” as excess capital in the market weighed on rates, while property catastrophe renewals saw double-digit declines with investor appetite for insurance-linked securities a contributing factor, according to broker Guy Carpenter.

According to equity analysts from Mizuho Americas, property catastrophe reinsurance rates are expected to remain adequate but less profitable in 2026 across peak zones and perils, while reinsurers are projected to deliver strong returns in 2025, aided by retained earnings growth and increasing ILS participation.

MS Amlin is back in the market to place securitized notes under its Phoenix Re series of collateralized reinsurance sidecar deals, with a $24.5 million tranche of notes under its Singapore registered Special Purpose Reinsurance Vehicle named Phoenix 2 Re Pte. Ltd. so far, Artemis can reveal.

Ministers from the G20, or Group of Twenty recently came together in Johannesburg, South Africa to address major global challenges and ways to promote sustainability, with members underscoring the importance of investing in building sustainable resilience through the use of disaster risk reduction (DRR) tools such as catastrophe bonds and parametric insurance.

With 2025 marking the fifth consecutive year in which global catastrophe claims have exceeded $100 billion, analysts at J.P. Morgan emphasised that the impact on reinsurers has been less damaging, in the main because higher cedant retentions continue to shift a greater share of losses back to primary carriers.

A recent report from KBW analysts, following their semi-annual trip to Bermuda in anticipation of the January 1st renewals, indicates that the retrocession market continues to be more vulnerable to instability, with this instability contributing an additional layer of fragility to the broader reinsurance ecosystem.

Al Wathba Insurance, an insurance company based in the United Arab Emirates operating out of Abu Dhabi and Dubai, has become the first insurer from the region to access the Lloyd’s of London insurance and reinsurance market using its London Bridge 2 PCC insurance-linked securities structure.

Reinsurance broker Gallagher Re has unveiled a new specialised Captive Risk Transfer team within its Global Facultative practice, which is set to be led by Martin Hughes from Artex Risk Solutions as Executive Vice President, Captives, effective January 1, 2026.