Reinsurance News

RenaissanceRe, the Bermuda headquartered specialty re/insurer and third-party reinsurance capital manager, has pre-announced an expected $345 million of losses from natural catastrophes and COVID-19 suffered during the fourth-quarter of 2020.

Munich Re has now completed the usual two tranche issuance for the renewal of its fully collateralized reinsurance sidecar vehicle Eden Re II Ltd., with the amount of capital backing the sidecar for 2021 down some 18% at $235 million.

Howden Group, the insurance and reinsurance group with both broking and underwriting at its heart, continues to blur lines, with its latest initiative being the establishment of a capacity vehicle that has third-party capital backing from an investor and will channel reinsurance underwriting capital to its DUAL MGA group.

Global specialty insurance and reinsurance group Canopius has expanded the utility and importance of its Bermuda reinsurance  and insurance-linked securities (ILS) platform, reclassifying its reinsurer Canopius Re to have a Class 4 Reinsurer licence.

U.S. and global primary insurance carrier and reinsurance company Chubb has named Jeremiah Konz as its new Chief Reinsurance Officer, giving him responsibility for the design and purchase of reinsurance programs for Chubb and its business units globally.

Insurers operating in the Asia Pacific region need increasing amounts of reinsurance protection following a series of costly catastrophe years and the COVID-19 pandemic, but they should look broadly at both traditional and alternative forms to secure the most efficient protection in the hardening market environment, according to rating agency S&P.

Trapped capital is expected to remain and pose an ongoing challenge for some investors and managers from across the insurance-linked securities (ILS) space, according to executives at Willis Re, the reinsurance arm of broker Willis Towers Watson (WTW).

New capital helped to mitigate the dislocation of global reinsurance markets at the key January 2021 renewal season, with ample supply to meet cedent demand, while there is an expectation that additional new capital comes on-stream early this year.

The current firming of reinsurance is perceived as “not a classic hard market” by analysts at Peel Hunt, who after meeting with underwriters from the Lloyd’s market concluded that rate momentum should persist through 2021.

The fact new reinsurance start-ups, the so-called Class of 2020, have no legacy portfolios of risk and so are unencumbered by recent years of catastrophe losses, exposure to the COVID-19 pandemic and issues such as social inflation, makes them the best opportunity to invest in the rising reinsurance tide, according to analysts at Jefferies.