Catastrophe bond news

The California Earthquake Authority (CEA) is said to have stabilised its risk transfer and reinsurance program, while increasing its claims paying capacity to the 1-in-365-year return period, as of January 1st 2024, according to rating agency AM Best.

The catastrophe bond market saw a more stable pricing environment in the fourth-quarter of 2023, as the trend towards tighter pricing that had begun earlier in the year slowed down, Aon Securities has said.

Here are the ten most popular news articles, week ending February 18th 2024, 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 subject of volatility in re/insurers results due to frequency loss events and the fact they require capital and risk transfer to help them manage this, came up during one of the panel sessions at our recent ILS NYC 2024 conference in New York on February 9th.

Fidelis Insurance has now finalised its latest catastrophe bond Herbie Re Ltd. (Series 2024-1) to provide the originally targeted $150 million of industry-loss triggered retrocession, but at significantly reduced pricing as the spreads fell to the bottom of the twice reduced range.

Swiss Re’s specialist insurance-linked securities (ILS) and third-party reinsurance capital management division, Alternative Capital Partners (ACP), has reported a 68% increase to its fee income earned for the full-year 2023, reaching $195 million.

US primary insurer Allstate has reported January catastrophe losses of $325 million, with the majority of this coming from just two events, suggesting the potential for further loss aggregation under its aggregate reinsurance cover from its catastrophe bonds.

Investor interest in the insurance-linked securities (ILS) asset class is resurging, as 2023’s strong returns and improvements to structures peak interest across institutional markets, but allocators warn they are prepared to downsize commitments to protect the market when necessary, attendees at our ILS NYC 2024 conference heard in New York on February 9th.

Fidelis Insurance has lowered the spread guidance for its new catastrophe bond issuance for the second time, now aiming to secure the targeted $150 million of industry-loss triggered retrocession from the Herbie Re Ltd. (Series 2024-1) cat bond at a pricing level further below the initial guidance.

Florida homeowner and commercial property insurance underwriter, the Tower Hill Insurance Exchange, has now secured the targeted doubling in size for its debut Winston Re Ltd. (Series 2024-1) catastrophe bond, with the issuance set to complete at the upper-end target of $400 million, while pricing proved to be below the initial mid-point of guidance.