Alternative reinsurance capital

The Vesttoo issues of invalid, fake or fraudulent letters of credit (LOCs) backing reinsurance deals provides “a depressing reminder of what can go wrong” when compliance fails to identify risks, according to Joe Schmidt, fintech investment partner at venture capital giant Andreessen Horowitz.

A new filing in the Vesttoo bankruptcy case provides a more detailed view of the scale of the alleged fraud, as Aon’s segregated accounts and reinsurance transformer company White Rock Insurance (SAC) Ltd. notes that there were 37 letters of credit (LOCs) that were likely invalid, which represented some $2.35 billion in value.

Porch Group subsidiary Homeowners of America Insurance Company (HOA), a managing general agent (MGA) and insurance carrier hybrid, has now filed to appear as a creditor in the Chapter 11 bankruptcy case of beleaguered insurtech Vesttoo, as HOA looks to protect its rights and any possible recoveries that can be made.

Two of the co-founders of under-fire insurtech Vesttoo have now been fired by the Board, with CEO Yaniv Bertele and Chief Financial Engineer Alon Lifshitz now officially removed from the company, and a new allegation has been reported, that a 2019 transaction facilitated by Vesttoo also had a fake letter of credit (LOC).

Here are the ten most popular news articles, week ending August 27th 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.

AIG will come out of the sale of its Validus reinsurance business and the AlphaCat Managers insurance-linked securities (ILS) platform to RenaissanceRe, with a significantly reduced amount of natural catastrophe volatility, case in point that the insurers 1-in-100 hurricane PML will drop by 70%.

During its bankruptcy case, beleaguered insurtech Vesttoo has been approved by the court to continue paying its staff, including certain employee benefits and expenses, but at a hearing this week the US Trustee balked at the suggestion terminated staff and founders may receive payments.

Bermuda-based specialist collateralized reinsurance and insurance-linked securities (ILS) investment manager, Pillar Capital Management Limited, has no intentions of changing its strategy as steady growth in assets under management (AuM) continues.

With pricing for retrocessional reinsurance having soared over the last couple of years and global reinsurance firms reducing their appetites for natural catastrophe risk, S&P Global Ratings believes this could drive a reduction in the use of retro protection.

Alternative capital, so that backing catastrophe bonds, insurance-linked securities (ILS) and other collateralized reinsurance structures, is set to make up a bigger proportion of dedicated reinsurance capital, according to Howden Tiger’s David Flandro.