Reinsurance News

The alternative capital market segment of reinsurance, so insurance-linked securities (ILS), catastrophe bonds and the like, will resume growth on the back of firming reinsurance pricing, analysts at Moody’s believe.

Aspen Capital Markets, the third-party reinsurance capital management unit of global re/insurer Aspen, has further increased its third-party capital and insurance-linked securities (ILS) assets under management to roughly $1 billion by the middle of 2022.

Alternative capital could be “more relevant than ever” in the global reinsurance industry and has a chance to grow, at a time when reinsurers are looking to manage their volatility more tightly and pulling-back in some quarters such as catastrophe risks, according to S&P Global Ratings.

Insurance-linked investment manager Nephila Capital has lead the re/insurance capacity on an innovative voluntary carbon credit market insurance product that provides cover for third-party negligence and fraud.

A new reinsurer has been established in Iran’s capital called Tehran Reinsurance Company, which launches with around USD 20 million of capital, and which has ambitions to offer services for a local insurance-linked securities (ILS) market.

Alternative reinsurance capital, so the capacity deployed through insurance-linked securities (ILS) structures including catastrophe bonds, has remained relatively flat since 2021, but with traditional reinsurance capital having shrunk, the ILS market’s share has increased, according to Gallagher Re.

Reinsurance buyers are anticipating not just a continuation of hard market conditions in 2023, but additional “rapid” price increases are expected, according to Moody’s Investors Service.

Lawmakers in Florida are pushing for a new rating agency, or alternative of some description, to come into the state and measure insurance carrier financial adequacy, with a proposal to hire a consultant to evaluate alternative options for providing ratings to insurers.

The California Senate is currently hearing readings of a new bill focused on legislation for extreme heat conditions, part of which includes a push to identify how heat-indices could be used as parametric triggers, including for catastrophe bonds.

Now having analysed the outcome of the mid-year renewals, equity analysts at JP Morgan continue to believe that stronger reinsurance pricing is likely to persist into 2023 and perhaps beyond, whether the wind blows this hurricane season, or not.