Covid-19 news

The fact cedents allowed insurance-linked securities (ILS) capital to be rolled over into reinsurance renewals rather than trapping it for potential losses from the pandemic, for the ILS market “amounts to kicking the can down the road for COVID-19-related losses,” according to AM Best.

At the recent January 1st 2021 reinsurance renewals, the expectations for significant impairment to some insurance-linked securities (ILS) strategies because of trapped collateral due to exposure to the COVID-19 pandemic proved overblown.

The average return of the insurance-linked securities (ILS) fund market was only 0.13% in January 2021, as pure catastrophe bond funds outpaced those invested in private ILS, according to the Eurekahedge ILS Advisers Index.

The response of Bermuda, and the broader, insurance-linked securities (ILS) asset class to the global pandemic was reassuring, and as the market moves further into 2021, a flight to simplicity is expected to take hold, according to Ross Webber, Managing Director at independent financial services provider and fund administrator, Apex Group Ltd.

Elementum Advisors, LLC, the insurance-linked securities (ILS) fund management and collateralised reinsurance underwriter, saw fund-raising success at the end of last year, helping to lift its ILS assets under management to $4.4 billion.

RenaissanceRe, the Bermuda-based reinsurance firm and third-party capital management specialist, has announced a rebranding of its Ventures business as RenaissanceRe Capital Partners, with Chris Parry taking the lead role as its Global Head.

France headquartered global reinsurance firm SCOR noted this morning that the COVID-19 coronavirus pandemic is creating the conditions for stronger reinsurance growth, alongside positive pricing dynamics, which it puts down to a general increase in risk aversion as a result of the pandemic crisis.

The insurance and reinsurance industry is likely to experience a “transition year” in 2021, as its recovery from the impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic continues, alongside reducing exposure to it from property and casualty (P&C) contracts, analysts at RBC have explained.

Global reinsurance giant Swiss Re reported its full-year 2020 results this morning, highlighting $3.9 billion of losses from the COVID-19 pandemic and $1.7 billion from what it called a higher frequency of natural catastrophe events.

Gabriel Bernardino, the soon to retire Chairman of the European Insurance and Occupational Pensions Authority (EIOPA), has highlighted the capital markets role in delivering catastrophe insurance that has fewer protection gaps.