Reinsurance News

Descartes Underwriting, a specialist underwriter of parametric risk transfer opportunities, has joined the International Cooperative and Mutual Insurance Federation (ICMIF) as a Supporting Member to help tackle climate risk.

With footage coming out of Jamaica after major hurricane Melissa made landfall yesterday showing the damage left in the extreme storms path, rating agency AM Best has said reinsurance capital will take a meaningful share of the losses suffered, while broker BMS Group’s Andrew Siffert said the industry loss could exceed $5 billion.

RenaissanceRe, the global reinsurance company and third-party capital manager, has reported a 24.1% rise year-on-year in fee income earned from its reinsurance joint-venture vehicles and insurance-linked securities (ILS) funds in the third-quarter of 2025.

During global re/insurer Everest Group’s Q3 2025 earnings call today, Jim Williamson, President and CEO of the firm, outlined that the property catastrophe reinsurance market is still a very favourable environment.

As major hurricane Melissa bears down on the Caribbean island nation of Jamaica, the significant intensity of the storm could activate the country’s parametric catastrophe bond and insurance protection triggers which, should they pay out, will provide a valuable source of financial liquidity and recovery funding at a particularly challenging time for the country.

Stone Ridge, the New York based alternative risk premia focused investment management group, has executed on a $1.2 billion adverse development reinsurance cover for global re/insurer Everest Group.

In a recent report released by Goldman Sachs, analysts convey a distinct skepticism regarding the rational behaviour of the property catastrophe reinsurance market, emphasising that the structural conditions have not altered and that signs of undisciplined competition continue to exist, even in the absence of more favourable market dynamics.

In the third-quarter of 2025, global property insurance rates accelerated their decline, with broker Marsh again highlighting increasingly favourable conditions for buyers, as the insurance market is increasingly influence by the softening of reinsurance pricing.

The Texas Windstorm Insurance Association (TWIA) has made some progress in determining how much in reinsurance and catastrophe bonds it will buy in 2026, as its Actuarial & Underwriting Committee met yesterday in a lengthy meeting to select a weighting methodology for a blending of risk models to derive the 1-in-50 year PML.

The government of Jamaica has raised a hurricane watch for what is currently tropical storm Melissa and with the National Hurricane Center warning that “significant strengthening is expected” and some forecast models showing a particularly intense storm nearing the island, it brings the country’s World Bank catastrophe bond and parametric insurance into focus.