Reinsurance News

Mergers & acquisitions between major insurance and reinsurance firms continue to drive consolidation and rating agency Standard & Poor’s explains in a new report that it sees M&A as just one of the ways traditional players are responding to the threat posed by ongoing reinsurance and capital markets convergence.

Hurricane Lane continues to track towards the Hawaii island chain as a category 3 storm this morning with sustained winds of up to 120 mph, some higher gusts and it remains the rainfall impacts that are most severe currently and any reinsurance or ILS market exposure is likely through aggregate contracts.

Japan is currently expecting a landfalling category 1 typhoon Cimaron to come ashore in eastern Shikoku over the next few hours, bringing sustained winds of just over 90 mph, higher gusts and an expectation of torrential rainfall and a flood threat along the storm’s path.

With the hurricane Irma related loss creep continuing to be experienced by the market, the number of insured claims counted by the regulator in Florida has reported another 8% rise in total insured losses from claims reported, now reaching almost $10.5 billion.

Industry loss warranty (ILW) pricing for Florida wind contracts and all natural perils has fallen in recent weeks, despite the fact that further ILW losses are expected after recent updates to insurance and reinsurance industry loss estimates for hurricane Irma.

The upcoming retirement of Hannover Re CEO Ulrich Wallin means a senior leadership change at the firm and also at its reinsurance competitor Swiss Re, as Jean-Jacques Henchoz of Swiss Re has been named as Wallin’s replacement, while Russell Higginbotham has been named to step in by Swiss Re.

Natural catastrophe and severe weather losses in Australia that fell to the insurance and reinsurance industry in 2018 so far now total roughly AU $261 million, after the Hobart storms and floods industry loss was raised to $100 million by the Insurance Council of Australia.

The retrocessional reinsurance market has become increasingly dependent on the capital markets and insurance-linked securities (ILS), with third-party capital providers beginning to dominate that sector and reinsurers increasingly utilising third-party capital backed retrocession.

The recent flooding in Japan caused by extreme levels of rainfall could result in an insurance and reinsurance industry loss as high as $4 billion, according to catastrophe risk modeller AIR Worldwide.

The creeping insurance and reinsurance industry-wide loss from last year’s hurricane Irma continues to impact the industry, with new loss creep estimates emerging from segments of the market that were most affected, now including Lloyd’s of London syndicates and the leading Floridian primary insurers.