2020 hurricane season

Hurricane Sally’s late intensification before landfall yesterday is expected to mean that overall private insurance and reinsurance market losses from the storm reach into the low billions, with any impact to ILS positions expected to be minimal.

Tremor Technologies, the insurtech offering a technology-based programmatic insurance and reinsurance risk transfer marketplace, experienced higher activity in its live cat ILW marketplace yesterday for hurricane Sally, than it did a few weeks ago for Laura.

Hurricane Sally made a last attempt to strengthen as it wobbled slowly towards the north Gulf Coast and has now intensified into a Category 2 storm, with sustained winds reaching 105 mph and higher gusts being reported.

While hurricane Sally’s wind speeds have remained relatively static throughout today as a Category 1 hurricane, the expectations for rainfall from the storm have increased, with the NHC warning of a “historic flooding” event for the northern Gulf Coast region.

Tremor Technologies, the insurtech company that offers a technology-based programmatic insurance and reinsurance risk transfer marketplace, is set to make its marketplace available for every major hurricane threat, with live cat auctions set to be run by the insurtech, including today for hurricane Sally.

Hurricane Sally has now formed in the Gulf of Mexico and as some forecasts had suggested is now showing the potential for further rapid intensification, with at minimum a Category 1 or 2 hurricane landfall now anticipated on the central Gulf Coast, not far from New Orleans.

The onshore and offshore total of insurance and reinsurance market losses from recent hurricane Laura is estimated to be in the double-digit billions, between $10 billion and $15 billion by catastrophe risk modeller RMS.

At current industry loss estimate levels, the impacts to insurance-linked securities (ILS) funds from hurricane Laura is not expected to be significant, with some funds even able to offset the hit with the income their reinsurance and retrocession positions earned them in August.

Industry losses from hurricane Laura are expected to largely fall to primary insurance carriers, but rating agency Fitch says that traditional reinsurance carriers and insurance-linked securities (ILS) players will take a share.

Hurricane Laura related industry loss estimates are coming thick and fast today, with catastrophe risk modellers Karen Clark & Company saying to expect a total of close to $9 billion, while AIR Worldwide has said up to $8 billion for onshore property losses only.