Casualty insurance-linked securities news

Casualty insurance-linked securities transactions are complex and require strong alignment, which makes finding strategic partners and understanding their motivations key, while at the same time given the complexity of arrangements such as casualty sidecars, realistic timelines are important, Philippe Trahan of Calidris Investment Partners said yesterday.

Holdings in insurance-linked securities fund structures and reinsurance sidecars made by Eaton Vance through three of its mutual funds have risen in value to approximately $777 million over the last quarter of record, as the asset manager allocated more to its investment in the Swiss Re Core Nat Cat Fund and added a new allocation […]

Strategic Risk Solutions, an independent provider of insurance, reinsurance and captive management and consulting services, suggests that casualty ILS will breakthrough when platforms offer dependable exit mechanisms providing investors entering longer-tail risk with greater certainty, by embedding capital finality from inception.

The diversity and size of the ILS investor base has never been larger, according to Cory Anger, Managing Director at Marsh Securities, who believes that the market remains extremely healthy, while emphasising the need to continue expanding investment opportunities further.

Executives at Howden Capital Markets & Advisory (HCMA) have indicated that as traditional casualty capacity remains constrained, casualty sidecars are becoming a genuine third pillar alongside traditional reinsurance and the balance-sheet, moving beyond being a specialty product for a select number of sophisticated investors.

Enstar, one of the largest legacy and run-off reinsurance specialists in the world, has recently begun fronting for capital providers including insurance-linked securities managers and sees this new offering a diversifying solution for its toolkit and one it intends to selectively develop further, Anguel Zaprianov explained to Artemis in a recent interview.

As asset-driven sidecars expand in the casualty market, focus is shifting from capital efficiency to risk management. Given this, Ledger Investing indicates that turning collateral into a second source of return requires market participants to underwrite the supporting asset portfolio with the same discipline as the liabilities.

Disclosed capital from casualty sidecars since 2024 has surpassed US $2 billion, driven by a specialised investor base taking on long-tail risks, with casualty vehicles accounting for much of the sidecar market’s recent growth, a recent report from rating agency AM Best has highlighted.

Analysts from KBW see the influx of capital into the casualty reinsurance market through insurance-linked securities structures as negative for reinsurers, while on the property catastrophe side they caution that rate softening often tends to be more pronounced than the headlines from the RVS suggest.

Over the past decade, the insurance-linked securities (ILS) market has expanded significantly, while keeping its global talent footprint remarkably lean. According to 20Twenty Search Advisor Jason Sykes, this streamlined operational structure shields ILS professionals from the widespread cost-cutting affecting traditional re/insurance, pointing to a bright future for talent in the sector.