Reinsurance News

Digital risk trading insurtech start-up Akinova, which promises a digital platform for trading insurance and reinsurance risks and will begin with an industry-loss warranty (ILW) type product, has appointed Thomas Heise of Insurance Income Strategies (IIS) to its advisory board.

The main rating agencies for the reinsurance industry are largely lacking in optimism when it comes to prospects for reinsurance pricing at the key January 2019 renewal season.

Property Claim Services (PCS) has announced that in the first-quarter of 2019 it will provide county-level industry insured loss estimates and claim counts across all U.S. states and perils, for events with insured losses of at least $1 billion.

Lockton Capital Markets has been launched by the largest independent insurance broker of the same name, the first broker-owned capital markets and alternative reinsurance capital unit launch we’ve seen in a while, reflecting a continued desire to converge insurance risks with the capital markets.

SCOR, the French global reinsurance giant, has reorganised its SCOR Global P&C division and added a new unit named P&C Partners which will have a remit including third-party capital and retrocession activities, as well as alternative solutions, InsurTech investing and other partnerships.

Alternative capital vehicles operated by traditional reinsurance firms are increasingly an area of competitive advantage for the sector, according to rating agency Moody’s Investors Service, something that may accelerate the shift towards re/insurer managed ILS assets.

Rating agency Fitch Ratings has changed its outlook for the global reinsurance sector from negative to stable, in a move that might surprise many given the continued influence of market forces on reinsurers ability to generate returns.

Property Claim Services (PCS) has expanded its industry loss index and estimates service for the cyber insurance and reinsurance space by adding cyber catastrophe events, covering losses that involve multiple insureds across affirmative and silent cyber with industry-wide insured losses of at least $250 million.

Aside from the very largest of global reinsurance firms, the rest of the pack need to understand that they need to do more than just provide reinsurance capacity, as that can be more simply and less expensively delivered through the capital markets, according to S&P.

The new normal in reinsurance markets has won out, as pricing optimism following last years major catastrophe losses fizzles out, while the march and influence of alternative capital continues to impact reinsurers ability to earn back their losses.