Collateralized reinsurance news

Bermudian reinsurance firm RenaissanceRe significantly increased its appetite to underwrite property catastrophe risks in the first-quarter, thanks to improved market conditions, but subsequently ceded more to third-party capital through its Upsilon RFO and DaVinciRe vehicles.

Catastrophe risk modelling and analytics specialist RMS has announced the launch of a new and updated high-definition risk model for Japanese earthquake and tsunami risks, which incorporates the latest seismic map data as well as learnings from the Tohoku and Kumamoto quakes.

With the major losses of 2017 largely behind the sector, the insurance-linked securities (ILS) market has tasked itself with becoming a trusted trading partner for ceding companies in their time of need, with the way the market recapitalised and traded forwards evidence that alternative capital continues to come of age, according to S&P.

An increase in estimated losses from last year’s hurricane Irma has dented the first-quarter results of Blue Capital Reinsurance Holdings Ltd., but the manager of the vehicle is confident in the portfolio underwritten at renewals this year and expects higher rates to deliver stronger returns.

The mid-year reinsurance renewal at June 1st is expected to yield pricing that is lower than last year for Florida headquartered primary insurance company Universal Insurance Holdings, which expects to be able to keep its retention static, while buying more coverage at comparable or lower rates.

Reinsurance brokerage Guy Carpenter has announced the promotion of its Bermuda Head of Retrocession broking John Fletcher to become the new Chairman of its island operations, as well as the hiring of James Morris as SVP, who joins the broker from Aon Bermuda.

Insurance-linked securities (ILS) demonstrated the value of its protection offering last year and the capital markets are expected to respond to the need for additional capacity to help close the expanding disaster gap in 2018, which could result in cat bond market growth of 20%, according to John Seo of Fermat Capital Management.

The continuing growth of the insurance-linked securities (ILS) market, the strong appetite being shown by catastrophe bond investors and the ongoing inflows of alternative capital from institutional investors into the reinsurance market, will limit rate increases at the mid-year 2018 renewals, KBW says.

Florida headquartered primary insurance company Universal Insurance Holdings is set to pass on another $50 million of losses from hurricane Irma to its reinsurance panel, after its gross loss exposure to the catastrophe event increased during the last quarter.

UK government-backed mutual terrorism reinsurance facility Pool Re announced today that it has enlisted the help of GC Securities as it explores the issuance of an insurance-linked securities (ILS), to identify the options available to it in tapping the capital markets for terrorism retrocession.