Collateralized reinsurance news

Aon Securities, the investment banking and capital markets unit of insurance and reinsurance broker Aon plc, has recorded a new high in its annual insurance-linked securities (ILS) market report, seeing the market at $24 billion for the first time.

Sequant Re, a Bermudian ILS and collateralized reinsurance company that aims to lower the barriers to entry for investors seeking access to the returns of re/insurance risks, has hired experienced underwriter Victor Baillargeon as its CUO.

Since the January 1st 2015 reinsurance renewal global reinsurers have increased their use of retrocession for tail protection across all perils, as rates declined resulting in a buyers market and the use of alternative capital and ILS structures increased, according to S&P.

The convergence market will play an important role in both risk transfer and risk mitigation for catastrophe exposures, with the result being an expected dampening of reinsurance price volatility and a flattening of the traditional market cycle, A.M. Best says.

Global reinsurers are adopting divergent approaches to managing catastrophe exposures as market challenges, driven in part by ample capacity and a lack of significant losses persist, according to insurance and reinsurance ratings agency Standard & Poor’s (S&P).

A new platform named PACE, launched by global reinsurance intermediary and capital advisor Aon Benfield, has been designed to help reinsurers monitor catastrophe exposures and can also help ILS fund managers to create optimal portfolios of insurance risk.

Reinsurance broker Guy Carpenter, has completed the final development phase of its comprehensive, pioneering probabilistic hail model, the G-CAT Hail Model. The model now boasts enhanced capabilities and has expanded its global reach to include a further seven countries.

The reinsurance market is “operating in a new reality of abundant capacity from traditional and alternative sources” according to A.M. Best. Historically change in the reinsurance market has been said to be cyclical, but the current wave of change is thought structural in nature.

Global insurance and reinsurance player ACE Group has secured capital market investor backed catastrophe reinsurance protection, via the syndication and issuance of a collateralized note using the Rewireconnect platform, Artemis can reveal.

Asia’s reinsurance markets have the potential and scope for strong growth as risk-awareness and demand for reinsurance coverage spikes in the region, coupled with a significant protection gap and the region’s high exposure to losses from natural catastrophes, according to Fitch Ratings.