Covid-19 news

Reported insured losses and reserve setting related to the COVID-19 coronavirus pandemic have now reached $20.5 billion, according to data collected by advisory PeriStrat LLC and augmented by our own research.

French global reinsurance company SCOR has reported an estimated EUR 456 million of losses due to the Covid-19 pandemic booked in the second-quarter of 2020, with retrocession support helping the company in managing the burden, particularly on the P&C side of its business.

Global reinsurance giant Swiss Re has reported what it calls a “significant addition” to its loss reserves for the Covid-19 pandemic, taking the total first-half 2020 hit from the coronavirus to $2.5 billion.

Australia headquartered global insurance and reinsurance group QBE has revealed an expectation of a US $750 million loss for the first-half of 2020, as its catastrophe losses came in over budget and it forecast a $335 million hit from Covid-19 in the period.

Reinsurance market price rises are expected to catch-up to the levels seen across primary and retrocession markets in recent months, flattening out the u-shaped marketplace and providing greater opportunities for underwriters and ILS investors to enhance their returns.

The participation of the capital markets in financing the world’s most pressing risks is an important source of capacity and investors could support up to $2 billion of capacity to back pandemic catastrophe bonds, Hannover Re CEO Jean-Jacques Henchoz explained in a recent interview.

Global reinsurance player Munich Re has revealed that it has suffered €700 million of losses in its reinsurance business from the Covid-19 coronavirus pandemic in the second-quarter of 2020.

Welcome to Artemis’ fifth Bermuda-focused ILS executive roundtable, which owing to restrictions caused by the ongoing Covid-19 pandemic was held virtually.

Issuance of new catastrophe bonds continued apace through early July, helping total cat bond and related ILS issuance reach $9.6 billion as of this time, according to Artemis’ Deal Directory data. While the demand from investors for higher-returns is increasingly evident, as both spreads and multiples-at-market accelerated over recent weeks.

In an extensive and insightful keynote at the virtually held Artemis ILS Asia 2020 conference (now available on-demand), Head of PCS, Tom Johansmeyer discussed a number of Covid-19 loss scenarios, including the potential combined impacts of the virus and strike riot, civil commotion (SRCC) in the U.S.