Alternative reinsurance capital

RenaissanceRe, the Bermuda headquartered specialty re/insurer and third-party reinsurance capital manager, has pre-announced an expected $345 million of losses from natural catastrophes and COVID-19 suffered during the fourth-quarter of 2020.

Hudson Structured Capital Management Ltd., the insurance-linked securities (ILS), reinsurance- and transportation- focused investment manager, has announced a key hire as Adrian Jones, formerly of SCOR, joins the firm.

Munich Re has now completed the usual two tranche issuance for the renewal of its fully collateralized reinsurance sidecar vehicle Eden Re II Ltd., with the amount of capital backing the sidecar for 2021 down some 18% at $235 million.

Howden Group, the insurance and reinsurance group with both broking and underwriting at its heart, continues to blur lines, with its latest initiative being the establishment of a capacity vehicle that has third-party capital backing from an investor and will channel reinsurance underwriting capital to its DUAL MGA group.

As a group, the assets under management of the top-tier of insurance-linked securities (ILS) investment fund managers had increased through the second-half of 2020, Artemis’ data shows.

Insurers operating in the Asia Pacific region need increasing amounts of reinsurance protection following a series of costly catastrophe years and the COVID-19 pandemic, but they should look broadly at both traditional and alternative forms to secure the most efficient protection in the hardening market environment, according to rating agency S&P.

Trapped capital is expected to remain and pose an ongoing challenge for some investors and managers from across the insurance-linked securities (ILS) space, according to executives at Willis Re, the reinsurance arm of broker Willis Towers Watson (WTW).

Global reinsurance capital levels returned to their pre-pandemic high at $625 billion by the end of September 2020, with a slight rise in alternative reinsurance capital recorded during the third-quarter by broker Aon.

RenaissanceRe, the Bermuda headquartered global reinsurance company, had lifted the amount of assets managed within its third-party capital, joint venture and managed insurance-linked securities (ILS) fund vehicles to $6.9 billion by October 2020, with these structures now getting close to equalling the reinsurers own capital base.

Mars Incorporated, the American company which is one of the largest globally active and multinational manufacturers of food products, confectionery and pet food, has said that alternative capital is attractive to the firm as a potential backer for its captive, whole parametric risk transfer is seen as a “fantastic” risk management tool.