reinsurance

Insurance-linked securities (ILS) capital providers need to see “proof-points” of the market delivering on its promises and ultimately returns, before any meaningful inflows return to the collateralised reinsurance side of the ILS market, Hiscox Group CEO Aki Hussain explained today.

US primary insurer Allstate has brought down the top of its Nationwide excess catastrophe reinsurance tower a little, at its latest renewal, with the program now only extending to $6.924 billion of losses, compared to $7.01 billion at the end of 2022.

The Florida insurance and reinsurance marketplace is “probably better” after the legislative changes that have occurred, although how impactful they will be remains uncertain and Swiss Re’s appetite for risk in the state sounds unlikely to increase significantly, according to comments by CFO John Dacey this morning.

In reporting its results this morning, Hiscox Group disclosed that its Hiscox ILS business experienced $148.4 million in net outflows of capital during the first-quarter of 2023, which the company said was “consistent with our expectations of a general trend in the sector.”

U.S. primary insurer Nationwide Mutual Insurance Company is now seeking to double the size of its new catastrophe bond, with its target for the deal now lifted to $300 million of multi-peril US catastrophe reinsurance, from this Aquila Re I Ltd. (Series 2023-1) transaction.

Global reinsurance giant Swiss Re has continued to expand its business in the current hard market environment, reporting today that it has underwritten 5% more business in volume terms, at 19% higher prices on average, during the April renewal season.

Insured claims paid by FEMA’s National Flood Insurance Program (NFIP) after hurricane Ian have now reached above $3.4 billion, bringing the figure close to the lower-end of its most recent loss estimate for the major storm, Artemis understands.

The property catastrophe reinsurance market is “in a very attractive phase” and, for RenaissanceRe, reinsurance as a whole is currently seen as more attractive right now, with its CEO Kevin O’Donnell saying he expects this to be the case for the foreseeable future.

The UK’s Prudential Regulation Authority (PRA) of the Bank of England, the main financial regulator, continues to place great emphasis on making its insurance-linked securities (ILS) regulatory regime a success and is now promising “accelerated authorisation” for what it terms “credible” sponsors.

The insurance and reinsurance industry loss estimate for this year’s severe flooding that affected the Auckland region of the North Island of New Zealand, has been raised by just over 6% to almost NZ $1.76 billion, by catastrophe data aggregator PERILS AG.