Reinsurance News

TigerRisk Partners LLC, the global risk, capital and reinsurance brokerage and advisory, has announced the hiring of experienced London reinsurance and insurance-linked securities (ILS) market executive Lawrence Po-Ba.

The insurance and reinsurance industry is likely facing a larger industry loss from the Covid-19 pandemic than it experienced with the 2001 World Trade Center event, but at the extreme tail-end of probabilities the impact to the market could reach $140 billion, Willis Towers Watson warned today.

It’s too early to say exactly how the current pandemic plays out, but the challenges are expected to provide an interesting test case for the collateralised and insurance-linked securities (ILS) business model, according to Frank Majors, Co-CEO and President of Nephila Holdings, and a Director of Nephila Capital.

The Covid-19 pandemic is proving to be a catalyst for an expected broad hardening of reinsurance and retrocession markets it seems, with brokers expecting rates to move largely in unison as the financial impact to carriers appears likely to hurt all corners of the market.

Global reinsurance firm Hannover Re continued to expand its activities in the fronting space, with the volume of limit fronted for insurance-linked securities (ILS) investors and funds increasing by 7% during the year.

The impacts of the Covid-19 coronavirus pandemic will be felt broadly across the global reinsurance marketplace, but in the insurance-linked securities (ILS) market the effects may drive a reduction in available ILS capacity and trapping of collateral, Darren Redhead, CEO of Lancashire Capital Management said today.

The California Wildfire Fund, which was established last year to back some of the wildfire liabilities related to utilities operating in the state, will go back to the reinsurance market to seek a renewal and an expansion of its first program for 2020 and beyond.

The insurance and reinsurance market looks increasingly disciplined and as a result Lancashire Holdings has taken some opportunities to grow in the first-quarter and expects this discipline to persist, driving further improvements in risk pricing, CEO Alex Maloney said today.

The Pacific Island nation of Tonga is to receive a $4.5 million payout from its parametric disaster insurance policy with the Pacific Catastrophe Risk Insurance Company (PCRIC), the largest payout to date from the regional catastrophe insurance facility.

Markel Corporation has put some of its own money behind the running-off of its retrocessional reinsurance investment manager Markel CATCo, investing $90 million in one of the CATCo funds in the first-quarter to boost capital available to fund investor redemptions.