Reinsurance News

The insurance and reinsurance industry loss estimate for extratropical cyclone, or European windstorm Friederike (David), has been increased by approximately 11% to EUR 1.629 billion (approximately US $2.02 billion) by PERILS AG.

The direction of insurance and reinsurance rates is a constant source of discussion and it’s beginning to seem that those ILS funds and reinsurers who look to shorten the risk-to-capital value-chain may benefit most, as rates are still rising in primary property underwriting business.

The insurance-linked securities (ILS) market has continued its advance on global reinsurance markets, with no sign that there has been any impact to investor appetite following the major catastrophe losses of 2017, according to broker Willis Re.

Analysis from global reinsurance broker Aon Benfield shows that alternative reinsurance capital growth again outpaced traditional market expansion in 2017, underlining its growing influence in the market.

Some reinsurance firms that entered the year with lower overall levels of capital, following the impacts of the major hurricanes and other losses last year, have become ” increasingly dependent on retrocession and alternative capital to maintain gross capacity,” according to rating agency Moody’s.

Bermudian reinsurance firm and third-party capital manager Everest Re has reported an increase in its losses from the California wildfires of late 2017, which the company says it will book in the first-quarter.

The CCRIF SPC (formerly the Caribbean Catastrophe Risk Insurance Facility) is ten years old this year and is it looks to the future the parametric insurance facility wants to better serve its members by scaling up the protection it offers, adding new products, and ultimately expanding the CCRIF risk pool.

The insurance and reinsurance industry was on the hook for a record $144 billion of disaster losses in 2017, which was largely driven by natural catastrophe events and the three major U.S. hurricanes, Harvey, Irma and Maria, which alone drove $92 billion of industry losses, according to Swiss Re.

Primary insurance and reinsurance group Chubb Ltd. continued to make greater use of its total-return vehicle ABR Reinsurance Ltd. in 2017, with the amount of premiums ceded through to ABR Re up around 19%, while the vehicle also took a significant increase in losses from the hurricanes and other catastrophe events.

The Bermuda Monetary Authority (BMA) has reported an increased number of insurance and reinsurance company registrations on the island in the first two months of 2018, which was helped by an increase in the number of special purpose insurers (SPI’s) being registered for ILS transactions.