insurance

Liberty Mutual Insurance has announced the hire of Shaun Sinniah from Miller, who joins as Head of Capital Solutions for Global Risk Solutions (GRS), effective September 28th, 2026.

With AI-driven infrastructure growth creating high levels of demand for catastrophe capacity within the re/insurance industry, Michael Stahel of LGT ILS Partners, has called out how alternative capital providers are well positioned to complement the needs that are being imposed onto traditional insurers and reinsurers amongst this build out.

Ten extreme weather events impacted the Canadian Prairies this summer, causing widespread damage and over $1.8 billion in insured losses, according to initial estimates from CatIQ. This surge in claims has prompted the Insurance Bureau of Canada (IBC) to urge governments to take immediate action to help reduce the country’s exposure to extreme weather events.

As the severity and frequency of natural catastrophe events continue to grow, addressing the protection gap remains an important focus, which has led Moody’s to call out that scaling the capital markets and tapping into the insurance-linked securities market can help narrow the gap as it continues to grow.

Hurricane Polo is rapidly intensifying off the southwestern coast of Mexico and the strengthening trend is expected to continue, while the track remains uncertain at this time, which has brought the $175 million IBRD CAR Mexico 2024 (Pacific) parametric catastrophe bond into focus this week.

CatIQ, Canada’s insured loss and exposure index provider, has raised its insurance industry loss estimate for the June 2026 flooding event that impacted Montreal’s West Island and the surrounding areas to CAD $442 million, a 7.5% increase from its second loss estimate of CAD $411 million that was issued in August.

Property insurance claims severity and costs are rising in the United States, even during periods where the number of catastrophe events designated were stable. Verisk’s latest data shows the second-quarter of 2026 could become one of the most costly for insurers on an average property claims cost basis.

Insurance-linked securities such as catastrophe bonds are seen as a complementary mechanism to help provide the necessary capital to transfer and fund the risks of large infrastructure projects in Asia, according to Lim Cheng Khai of the Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS).

Tower Insurance, the Auckland, New Zealand-headquartered general insurer, has capitalised on favourable reinsurance market conditions to expand its catastrophe coverage again, buying first-event limit of up to NZ $970 million at its renewal, while experiencing improved pricing for the second year in a row.

While softer property catastrophe reinsurance pricing can allow P&C insurers to improve their earnings and strengthen their protection it is the management response that matters, rating agency KBRA has said. As those that use favourable pricing to accelerate growth may realise substantially less credit benefit when catastrophes occur or the market turns again.