Alternative reinsurance capital

Combined with advanced technology and great talent, Vantage sees the range of insurance-linked securities (ILS) structures as a means to be innovative and expand the set of risks that are covered by the risk transfer space, according to co-founder and Chief Executive Officer (CEO), Greg Hendrick.

The shuttering of Guernsey based, Credit Suisse Insurance-Linked Strategies supported, reinsurance firms Kelvin Re and Humboldt Re is due to strategic decisions being taken by the ultimate institutional investors behind them, a Credit Suisse spokesperson told us.

The California Earthquake Authority’s (CEA) reinsurance program has shrunk slightly in the last few weeks, as $400 million of Ursa Re catastrophe bonds matured. But the Authority is aiming to keep its risk transfer target stable for 2021, suggesting more catastrophe bond issues are possible early in the new year.

AXIS Capital’s collateralised reinsurance sidecar vehicle Alturas Re Ltd. has completed another issuance of preferred shares, as the specialist global re/insurer continues to expand options for third-party investors to participate in its underwriting returns through quota shares.

It appears we’re heading quickly towards a familiar reinsurance renewals story, where the ambition to capitalise on rate increases and subsequent inflows of capacity are now serving to ramp up competition. As a result, market sources expect pricing at the January 2021 reinsurance renewals will not be as hard as forecast back in September or […]

While the recent survey we conducted alongside Synpulse, looking at the adoption of environmental, social, and governance (ESG) practices in the risk transfer, reinsurance and insurance-linked securities (ILS) markets, found that ESG is perceived as very important, there is an evident gap between perception and actual practice.

Following the news that Guernsey based, Credit Suisse Insurance Linked Strategies supported reinsurance firms Kelvin Re and Humboldt Re are to cease underwriting new business, rating agency AM Best has placed their ratings under review with negative implications.

In light of a marketplace that had slowed its growth trajectory somewhat in recent years, Fitch has underlined the need for a sustained inflow of new sponsors to drive a more dynamic, growing catastrophe bond and insurance-linked securities (ILS) sector.

The two Guernsey domiciled, rated reinsurance carriers managed by and backed by capital from the Credit Suisse Insurance Linked Strategies Ltd. team, Kelvin Re and Humboldt Re, are not renewing any business this January and will stop writing.

A new set of guidance on the treatment of passive foreign investment companies (PFICs) published at the end of last week by the U.S. Internal Revenue Service and Department of the Treasury has been modified so that the active conduct test excludes insurance-linked securities (ILS) funds, as well as other ILS and reinsurance securitization structures.