Alternative reinsurance capital

Here are the ten most popular news articles, week ending August 13th 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.

A new statement from the incoming interim CEO of Vesttoo, Ami Barlev, claims that the company has now learned that “a number of factors, external to the company, led directly to the current crisis, including the involvement of certain foreign banks and financial institutions.”

Insurance and reinsurance broking giant Aon is pursuing beleaguered insurtech Vesttoo through a New York Court via its White Rock Insurance (SAC) Ltd. segregated account and transformer structure, and has so far secured a temporary restraining order to freeze Vesttoo’s funds.

In analysing US insurer filings for their use of letters of credit (LOCs) specifically from one of the banks at the centre of the Vesttoo linked collateral fraud story, ALIRT Insurance Research found more than $1.3 billion of them, but said it is hard to tell how much of that is associated with Vesttoo, or […]

ALIRT Insurance Research has concluded that, ultimately, all of the parties exposed to the alleged fraudulent LOC issue engulfing insurtech Vesttoo bear some responsibility, stating that it’s “difficult to fathom” that the fraud was “able to evade multiple levels of due diligence”.

The Board of Directors of under fire insurtech Vesttoo has announced the appointment of Ami Barlev as interim Chief Executive Officer (CEO), as Yaniv Bertele, one of its co-founders who served as CEO, is on paid leave as the alleged collateral fraud issue continues to be investigated.

German reinsurer Hannover Re has purchased a significant amount of retrocession protection in 2023, and while this has limited its growth appetite in the natural catastrophe space, the company has sufficient room to expand its appetite should opportunities present themselves, according to Sven Althoff, Member of the Executive Board, P&C, Hannover Re.

Porch Group, a software driven financial services group with a homeowners insurance arm, has revealed exposure to reinsurance contracts arranged via Vesttoo and has realised a charge of $48.2 million in its second-quarter results because of this, while pursuing $300 million of collateral from a letter of credit (LOC).

The collateralized insurer class of company that was set up by under-pressure insurtech Vesttoo is now being liquidated, with the company stating that it has opted to focus its activities “on a limited number of high-quality and large markets.”

RenaissanceRe saw its third-party investor capital assets under management (AUM), dedicated to its property and casualty reinsurance business, rise by $250 million during the second-quarter of the year, to reach a new high of $6.85 billion.