Covid-19 news

The Caribbean Development Bank (CDB) and Government of Canada have partnered to fund the CCRIF parametric insurance premiums of nine Caribbean countries, enabling them to continue with coverage despite the fiscal impacts from the Covid-19 pandemic.

U.S. and global primary insurance carrier and reinsurance company Chubb, has pre-announced a massive just over $1.8 billion hit from global catastrophes and the Covid-19 pandemic for the second-quarter of the year, setting the stage for other large loss hits from major players.

Media reports state that the World Bank has shelved plans for any future issuance of pandemic catastrophe bonds and for a version two of its Pandemic Emergency Financing Facility (PEF).

The average return of catastrophe bond and insurance-linked securities (ILS) funds was just 0.12% in May 2020, as muted performance was the order of the day and a number of funds fell to a decline.

Currently, bottom-up Covid-19 pandemic loss announcements from insurance and reinsurance companies stand at only around $6 billion, some way short of the wide ranging $30 billion to $100 billion industry loss estimates and broker Willis Re warns it will likely take years to catch up which has ramifications for the ILS market.

The first catastrophe bond rating action caused by the Covid-19 coronavirus pandemic has now been resolved and reverted, as S&P Global Ratings affirmed Swiss Re’s late 2015 Vita Capital VI Limited (Series 2015-1) transaction and removed it from a negative watch.

Lloyd’s of London, the specialist insurance and reinsurance marketplace, has this morning pitched three possible solutions to pandemic and systemic risk insurance provision, as it seeks to bring constructive discussion to the issues of insurability of pandemic risk exposure and other major systemic risks.

Insurance and reinsurance broker Aon has elected to end the staff salary reductions it had introduced back in April, saying that “the overall macroeconomic uncertainty and downside are somewhat less significant than anticipated.”

The non-life insurance and reinsurance industry is deemed most likely to face between $80 billion and $100 billion of underwriting losses due to the Covid-19 coronavirus pandemic, according to the respondents to our latest market survey.

The uncertainty that the Covid-19 pandemic has created for the insurance and reinsurance industry serves to further highlight the need for risk transfer data transparency, all the way down the market chain, according to Nephila Capital Co-CEO Frank Majors