cyber ILW

The industry-loss warranty (ILW) market can be a driver of diversification for the insurance-linked securities (ILS) market as a whole, with growth expected in specialty lines and cyber risks.

Cyber risk modelling company Kovrr has added new insurance, reinsurance and insurance-linked securities (ILS) expertise to its advisory board with the addition of John Butler, Head of Cohen & Company’s U.S. Insurance Asset Management Platform and Global ILS Program.

There is constant chatter about cyber insurance and reinsurance as a meaningful future component peril of the insurance-linked securities (ILS) asset class, but so far little transactional flow has been seen. We spoke with Tom Johansmeyer, Head of PCS, to get his view on the current status of cyber ILS.

Specialist insurance, reinsurance and ILS capital manager Hiscox has provided the capital to back a novel parametric cyber risk transfer arrangement that is based on a trigger from PCS and was transacted on the technology platform created by AkinovA.

Insurance-linked securities (ILS) investors are looking for greater certainty on cyber risk before diving into underwriting cyber reinsurance contracts in ILS form. While this market is still developing, CyberCube is working directly with the industry to try to drive greater understanding and comfort of the risks involved.

Hiscox is targeting the launch of a new ILS fund focused on cyber risks, as it looks to put its expertise in underwriting cyber insurance and reinsurance together with its Hiscox Re Insurance Linked Strategies ILS management expertise to create what would be a new and unique insurance-linked investment opportunity.

Industry loss warranty (ILW) trading picked up around the middle of the year, as tailwinds drove higher pricing and increased demand also played a factor in driving volumes up, according to Aon.

The use of informal data sources as inputs to industry loss warranty (ILW) triggers can cause issues related to collateral such as its trapping and produce additional basis risk, according to Property Claim Services (PCS).

A lack of historical and contextual data continues to hinder the entry of the insurance-linked securities (ILS) market into the cyber re/insurance space, and with ‘silent’ cyber exposures adding further uncertainty, it might be easiest for the ILS sector to focus on affirmative cyber, at least to begin with.

Given the enormous economic loss potential associated with cyber risks, rating agency Standard & Poor’s feels it inevitable that insurance and reinsurance firms will look to both the government and capital markets to help in boosting available cyber risk capacity.