Reinsurance News

The expansion of catastrophe bond and insurance-linked securities (ILS) market activity in 2025 is driving higher earnings for bankers and brokers, with Aon reporting today that the third-quarter of 2025 saw its ILS business experiencing “significant growth” in revenue terms.

Alternative investment giant Blackstone has partnered with The Fidelis Partnership on a new Lloyd’s syndicate launch, with Blackstone set to fund Syndicate 2126 through the London Bridge 2 PCC insurance-linked securities (ILS) structure.

Thierry Léger, CEO of global reinsurer SCOR, said this morning that it’s too early to tell whether property catastrophe reinsurance remains attractively priced at the end of year renewals, but his company is anticipating heightened competition in the market as capital build-up outstrips still-rising demand.

In the weekly Impact Forecasting report from Aon, the company said that major hurricane Melissa’s impacts on Jamaica are likely to drive economic and insured losses into the single-digit billions of dollars, while also confirming parametric structures are likely to respond due to the storms severity.

Brian Costanzo, Chief Financial Officer at Markel, indicated that the business that is fronted for Nephila Capital through Markel Bermuda Ltd (MBL) is performing very well this year, given the low level of catastrophe losses experienced.

Nephila Capital, the specialist reinsurance and insurance-linked securities (ILS) manager owned by Markel, has continued to grow its stature in the reinsurance market in the last quarter, with catastrophe premiums written growing and as a result the ILS manager has delivered increased fund management revenues to its parent as well.

Speaking during RenaissanceRe’s Q3 2025 earnings call today, Kevin J. O’Donnell, President and Chief Executive Officer of the firm suggested that third-party capital is not likely to be the primary driver of pricing in 2026, adding that pricing in 2026 will be driven more by reinsurers’ comfort with return levels in the property catastrophe segment.

The global insurance and reinsurance industry is facing losses in the billions of dollars after major hurricane Melissa’s devastating landfall and passage across Jamaica, while the country’s $150 million IBRD CAR Jamaica 2024 parametric catastrophe bond is likely to face a full loss, ILS investment manager Twelve Securis has said.

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.