Reinsurance News

Markel CATCo Investment Management Ltd., the collateralized reinsurance and retrocessional investment fund manager, is aiming to raise at least $250 million of new capital for its stock exchange listed retrocessional reinsurance fund, to take advantage of new demand at the January renewals.

German reinsurance player Hannover Re saw its retrocession capacity providers take more than half of its losses from hurricanes Harvey, Irma and Maria. Following the major losses the reinsurer has freed up capital from its investment portfolio, for tactical considerations at the renewals.

Topping the agenda at the current COP23, 23rd Conference of the Parties (COP) annual UN climate conference held in Bonn, Germany over the coming fortnight, is the topic of climatic loss and damage, providing an opportunity for risk transfer and re/insurance practices to take centre stage.

Reinsurer RenaissanceRe (RenRe) has revealed that it ceded more than two-thirds of its gross losses from Q3 events to retrocessionaires and third-party investors, which includes a roughly $500 million collateralised reinsurance recovery.

Property and casualty insurance company United Insurance Holdings (UPC Insurance) has passed the majority of its losses from hurricanes Harvey and Irma to its reinsurance capacity providers, with the ILS fund market providing a significant amount of support, as its program is roughly 85% collateralized.

U.S. primary insurer Federated National Holding Company (FedNat) reported that it eroded roughly 20% of its $1.5 billion of per-event reinsurance cover in paying claims from hurricanes Harvey and Irma, which the capital markets and ILS funds will have supported due to the insurers use of collateralized protection.

Hiscox Group, the specialist insurance and reinsurance firm, has experienced further growth in its Hiscox Re ILS funds in the last quarter, but following the major catastrophe losses is witnessing “material hardening” with some property catastrophe reinsurance rates expected to be up as much as 30%.

Catastrophe exposed property insurance pricing is expected to rise anywhere from 10% to as much as 25%, depending on whether accounts faced losses during the recent hurricane events, but “still eager” alternative capital providers may dampen the upward pressure on rates, broker Willis Towers Watson said.

It’s just under three months until our second conference in New York, with Artemis ILS NYC 2018 being held in central Manhattan on the 2nd February. Tickets are selling fast and today we can reveal some of our speakers and also give you a glimpse at who you can meet on the day.

Despite a catastrophe loss bill of around $3 billion from recent hurricanes Harvey, Irma and Maria, as well as the Mexico earthquakes, Warren Buffett’s insurance and reinsurance businesses at Berkshire Hathaway continued to contribute to a growing pot of investment float, leaving the firm with even more excess capital.