Covid-19 news

Our fourth Artemis Live video interview features an interesting and wide-ranging discussion with David Flandro, Managing Director, Hyperion X Analytics, a data and technology focused unit of the global Hyperion Insurance Group.

Insurance-linked securities (ILS) have once again demonstrated their lack of correlation to global financial markets in proving themselves “largely immune” to Covid-19 related volatility, Dirk Lohmann has said.

The insurance and reinsurance industry is likely facing a larger industry loss from the Covid-19 pandemic than it experienced with the 2001 World Trade Center event, but at the extreme tail-end of probabilities the impact to the market could reach $140 billion, Willis Towers Watson warned today.

It’s too early to say exactly how the current pandemic plays out, but the challenges are expected to provide an interesting test case for the collateralised and insurance-linked securities (ILS) business model, according to Frank Majors, Co-CEO and President of Nephila Holdings, and a Director of Nephila Capital.

The Covid-19 pandemic is proving to be a catalyst for an expected broad hardening of reinsurance and retrocession markets it seems, with brokers expecting rates to move largely in unison as the financial impact to carriers appears likely to hurt all corners of the market.

The impacts of the Covid-19 coronavirus pandemic will be felt broadly across the global reinsurance marketplace, but in the insurance-linked securities (ILS) market the effects may drive a reduction in available ILS capacity and trapping of collateral, Darren Redhead, CEO of Lancashire Capital Management said today.

The average return of insurance-linked securities (ILS), catastrophe bond and reinsurance linked investment funds fell to a negative -0.65% in March 2020, as the significant selling pressure experienced in the secondary cat bond market drove returns down for the month.

The insurance and reinsurance market looks increasingly disciplined and as a result Lancashire Holdings has taken some opportunities to grow in the first-quarter and expects this discipline to persist, driving further improvements in risk pricing, CEO Alex Maloney said today.

Swiss Re, the Zurich headquartered global reinsurance firm, has fallen to a group net loss of -$225 million for the first-quarter of 2020, after taking a pre-tax charge of $476 million for its property and casualty businesses due to the Covid-19 pandemic.

The impacts faced by insurance and reinsurance markets from the ongoing Covid-19 pandemic has some parallels with the 2001 World Trade Center bombing, with challenges expected to be faced and the possibility of adverse reserve development further down the line, executives at Fidelis have said.