Reinsurance News

Artemis has learned that Alex Mican, the Head of PCS Global Strategy and Growth at Verisk Claims, is departing the company.

Descartes Underwriting, the parametric risk transfer specialist, has announced the appointment of Blanca Berruguete as Head of Europe, the Middle East and Africa (EMEA) Distribution and Client Management, where she will be based in Madrid, and report to Descartes’ co-founder and Chief Insurance Officer Sébastien Piguet.

MultiStrat, the specialist underwriter, reinsurance investment facilitator and casualty insurance-linked securities (ILS) company, has announced that it has appointed Maryam Abdullah as Head of Pricing, to support the company’s growth plans for 2025.

US primary insurer Travelers has announced its preliminary estimate of catastrophe losses from the Los Angeles, California wildfires at $1.7 billion before-tax ($1.3 billion after-tax) and the company says these figures are net of reinsurance recoveries.

In the wake of recent devastating wildfires in California, Howden Re has called for reforms and action to encourage more risk capacity to help in closing the protection gap crisis in the state, saying that both traditional reinsurance and capital markets will be needed, as well as innovative risk transfer such as parametric solutions.

Insurance industry losses from the severe hailstorm that struck the Calgary area of Canada on August 5th 2024 is estimated to have reached CAD $3.25 billion, according to CatIQ, Canada’s insured loss and exposure indices provider.

Mereo Insurance, the Bermuda-based start-up with former AIG CEO Brian Duperreault as its Chairman, has now finalised a $700m+ capital raise for its equity balance-sheet we understand, gaining an ‘A-‘ rating from AM Best, while the company also deployed around $250m in capacity from its insurance-linked securities (ILS) fund at the January reinsurance renewals.

According to broking group Howden, inflows are accelerating in ILS arrangements for casualty, managing general agents (MGAs), cyber insurance-linked securities (cyber ILS) and reinsurance sidecars, as capacity providers look to grow existing premium pools.

White Mountains has reported that for full year 2024, its investment into the Outrigger Re collateralized reinsurance sidecar, which supports its property and casualty insurance and reinsurance subsidiary Ark, delivered income of $46 million, down 33% on 2023 as catastrophe losses had a far greater impact.

Euler ILS Partners, the specialist insurance-linked securities (ILS) investment manager, has issued an updated event report for the California wildfires, saying it believes the insurance industry loss may sit between $23 billion to $33 billion.