Reinsurance News

The World Bank has again stressed the importance of innovative products from, and engagement with, the risk transfer industry, the World Bank’s message brings to mind the benefits of insurance-linked securities (ILS) structures.

The abundance of capacity in the property catastrophe and retrocession reinsurance sector continues to contribute to a challenging environment, and signs are beginning to show of a change to the reinsurance market cycle owing to the fungibility of capital, says Markel CATCo.

London market insurance and reinsurance players have historically benefited from playing the re/insurance cycle, but in today’s highly competitive marketplace, post-event profits for the London market are under threat from sidelined capital, says A.M. Best.

A magnitude 6.2 earthquake has struck overnight in the Umbria area of Italy, with early reports of 10 deaths, people still trapped and widespread damage to buildings and structures in the affected region.

Two senior appointments at Willis Re, the reinsurance broking arm of Willis Towers Watson, have been announced, with Chris McDowell of Aon Benfield being named CEO of Willis Re Bermuda, as Michael Harden is set to return to the Asia Pacific region taking a role as President of Willis Re Asia Pacific.

International ratings agency Standard & Poor’s (S&P) has highlighted the strong enterprise risk management (ERM) practices of global reinsurers as key to success in the current market. But as market headwinds persist and margins continue to thin, the harder it will be for firms to weather the storm.

Despite the fact that U.S. flood events are largely paid for by the National Flood Insurance Program (NFIP) and primary insurance, where flood is a covered peril, the recent severe floods in Louisiana could see some of the burden covered by reinsurance capital.

Is blockchain a solution in search of a problem? For the insurance industry, there’s been plenty of chatter about distributed ledger technology and smart contracts, but take-up has been thin.

The Government of Belize has received a payout of $261,073 from parametric insurance coverage provided by the CCRIF SPC (formerly the Caribbean Catastrophe Risk Insurance Facility), after torrential rainfall caused by hurricane Earl.

A new suite of high resolution Europe Inland Flood Hazard Data has been released by catastrophe risk modeller RMS, which the firm says provides global insurance and reinsurance firms (and perhaps ILS players) with a greater opportunity to write business for an underinsured risk.