Alternative reinsurance capital

The committee of unsecured creditors in the Chapter 11 bankruptcy case of insurtech Vesttoo has now been approved to begin conducting legal discovery on the company after the judge issued an order approving discovery at a hearing yesterday.

A Bermuda Supreme Court hearing held on Friday, to look into the issue of segregated cells that housed reinsurance deals affected by the Vesttoo letter of credit (LOC) fraud and fake collateral issues, resulted in an adjournment of the case until December 1st, the Royal Gazette has reported.

Here are the ten most popular news articles, week ending October 1st 2023, covering catastrophe bonds, ILS, reinsurance capital and related risk transfer topics. To ensure you never miss a thing subscribe to the weekly Artemis email newsletter updates or get our email alerts for every article we publish.

The appetite of investors to fund reinsurance strategies, be they traditional equity-backed reinsurers, or insurance-linked securities (ILS) structures, is a key determinant to how long the current hard market will last, AM Best has said.

It’s increasingly clear that the ongoing difference of opinion over ownership or control of property rights to segregated cells and accounts linked to them, that were used for reinsurance deals facilitated by Vesttoo where letters of credit (LOC) were found to be fraudulent or forged, will need a definitive court ruling to be decided.

The latest vintage of the life and annuity focused reinsurance sidecar structure launched by Athene Holding Ltd., the life and retirement reinsurance company majority owned by investor and private equity specialist Apollo Global, has received its ratings and we understand the investor commitments to it are expected to roughly double.

In a response to objections made to the bankruptcy court by Vesttoo and the unsecured creditor committee, the joint provisional liquidators (JPL’s) to the affected cells of the Aon White Rock SAC vehicle have said arguments made objecting to their application for Chapter 15 relief are “meritless”.

Porch Group, a software driven financial services group with a homeowners insurance arm, continues to proactively strengthen its business to recover from exposure to the Vesttoo-linked letter of credit (LOC) collateral fraud that affected certain reinsurance deals its Homeowners of America Insurance Company (HOA) subsidiary had entered into.

Speaking with Artemis in a recent interview, Christian Mumenthaler, the CEO of global reinsurer Swiss Re explained that he believes in the insurance-linked securities (ILS) system and sees this alternative form of reinsurance capital as occupying a critical position in the marketplace.

The judge in Vesttoo’s Chapter 11 bankruptcy case has called for all sides to “stop litigating and start cooperating” to find a common ground on key issues that have been holding back progress at a hearing yesterday.