Cat bond news

Heritage Insurance Holdings Inc. said it expects its losses from hurricane Matthew will be less than $100m, with losses above a $40m retention falling within the insurers reinsurance tower but missing the $727.5m of Citrus Re catastrophe bonds.

Global law firm Dentons has appointed new hire John J. Sarchio as a partner in the Insurance Regulatory practice. Sarchio has experience in insurance and reinsurance transactional law, including catastrophe bonds, sidecars and other ILS arrangements.

Losses to the insurance and reinsurance industry from hurricane Matthew are expected to largely fall within the sector’s catastrophe budgets for the second half of 2016, according to analysts at Peel Hunt.

All three tranches of the Laetere Re Ltd. (Series 2016-1) catastrophe bond and the single tranche of the First Coast Re Ltd. (Series 2016-1) cat bond, traded down at lower and even distressed pricing at the back-end of last week due to hurricane Matthew’s approach.

The Swiss Re Global Cat Bond Index has declined by the largest amount since 2012 on the threat posed by hurricane Matthew’s approach towards Florida, as mark to market losses flowed through into investor and brokers cat bond pricing expectations.

Here are the ten most popular news articles, week ending 9th October 2016, 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.

Hurricane Matthew’s close encounter (so far) with the Florida coastline, and as Georgia and South Carolina are also set to feel the hurricane’s force, could be the first real test for insurance, reinsurance and insurance-linked securities (ILS) players in recent years, according to rating agencies and equity analysts.

The risk of a major insurance and reinsurance industry loss seems to have decreased with the last few forecast updates for hurricane Matthew, as the path looks more likely to remain offshore of the Florida and southeast U.S. coastline.

According to rating agency Standard & Poor’s there are 15 catastrophe bonds it has given ratings to that are most exposed to hurricane Matthews impact on the Florida and U.S. eastern coastline. We also highlight a few which are not S&P rated and that we believe to be among the more exposed.

Hurricane Matthew could drag down returns for insurance and reinsurance firms, as well as ILS investors, but not offer the sector any solace from the soft market by increasing rates and pricing, according to analysts at Peel Hunt.