Reinsurance News

Insurance-linked securities such as catastrophe bonds are seen as a complementary mechanism to help provide the necessary capital to transfer and fund the risks of large infrastructure projects in Asia, according to Lim Cheng Khai of the Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS).

Tower Insurance, the Auckland, New Zealand-headquartered general insurer, has capitalised on favourable reinsurance market conditions to expand its catastrophe coverage again, buying first-event limit of up to NZ $970 million at its renewal, while experiencing improved pricing for the second year in a row.

Urs Baertschi, Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of Property & Casualty (P&C) Reinsurance at Swiss Re emphasised that within today’s increasingly interconnected world, the reinsurer is supporting clients by creating risk awareness, risk prevention, and risk transfer.

Insurance-linked securities investors must broaden their mandates or risk losing relevance with cedents in a softening reinsurance market flush with capacity, according to Shiv Kumar, CEO of Marsh Securities, speaking in an interview at the 2026 Rendez-Vous de Septembre.

While softer property catastrophe reinsurance pricing can allow P&C insurers to improve their earnings and strengthen their protection it is the management response that matters, rating agency KBRA has said. As those that use favourable pricing to accelerate growth may realise substantially less credit benefit when catastrophes occur or the market turns again.

The Vesttoo debacle refuses to go away. In a turn of events, the first criminal charges related to the reinsurance letters of credit fraud have finally been confirmed, as a former China Construction Bank employee has pleaded guilty to accepting bribes to authenticate false collateral documentation.

A busy August in catastrophe loss terms from severe weather activity has resulted in large US insurer Allstate reporting $748 million in pre-tax losses, which has lifted the total across the current annual aggregate risk period for its catastrophe bonds to $3.15 billion so far.

Institutional capital has matured into a structural component of global reinsurance infrastructure, accounting for nearly a fifth of total global reinsurance capital market capacity in the first-half of 2026 as the traditional underwriting value chain continues to unbundle, according to broker Aon.

The Bermuda Monetary Authority has confirmed that contracts under its proposed Parametric Special Purpose Insurer (PSPI) regulatory framework can be structured as reinsurance, derivatives, or swaps, so as long as the underlying risk transfer meets the applicable statutory and regulatory requirements.

While property reinsurance and insurance-linked investment strategies are often viewed as carrying significant tail risk, Agecroft Partners believes that carefully constructed portfolios and disciplined underwriting can help to manage downside volatility more effectively than headline risk profiles may suggest.