Reinsurance News

A new bill proposed in California may cause a restructuring of the financial resources tower of the California Earthquake Authority (CEA), meaning it may purchase roughly $1.3 billion less in reinsurance and catastrophe bond cover next year, but demand is forecast to increase significantly in years to come.

Bermudian reinsurance firm RenaissanceRe has extended the maturity of the remaining $23.3 million of insurance-linked securities (ILS) notes from its Fibonacci Re Ltd. vehicle’s 2017 and 2018 issuances, as loss development continues.

Once again the outlook for reinsurance rates at the mid-year renewal season is clouded and dependent on the appetites of underwriters to deploy more capacity.

Hamilton Re, the Bermuda-based reinsurance arm of Hamilton Insurance Group, has successfully completed a renewal of its collateralized reinsurance sidecar vehicle Turing Re, capitalising the special purpose insurance vehicle with another $65 million of third-party capital.

Aurous Risk Partners, a reinsurance focused managing general agency (MGA) that launched in 2018 with a desire to connect risks with the most suitable capital, has secured its first Lloyd’s energy binder that will be backed by capacity from Credit Suisse ILS’ Arcus Syndicate 1856.

The subject of reforming the Lloyd’s insurance and reinsurance market, including ideas on modernisation, capital, costs and more, is being treated with more urgency than ever before, as its underwriting remains “structurally unprofitable” analysts say.

The availability of retrocessional reinsurance capacity remained tight at the just completed April 1st 2019 renewals, according to broker Willis Re, resulting in similar market conditions to those seen in January.

Reinsurance, catastrophe and weather risk-linked investment fund manager Nephila Capital will add a new source of risk from the U.S. eastern seaboard, as its managing general agency (MGA), Velocity Risk Underwriters LLC has expanded into North Carolina and New York.

Palomar Insurance Holdings, the speciality California-based insurer that provides largely catastrophe exposed property covers, as seeking to raise $50 million in a Nasdaq initial public offering (IPO), adding to the $20 million it raised in a debt issuance invested in by ILS specialists Fermat Capital Management and investor Cohen & Company.

Arcus Syndicate 1856 at Lloyd’s, which is backed by third-party funds under the management of the Credit Suisse insurance and reinsurance linked investment strategies team, grew its gross premiums written by an impressive 58% in 2018.