reinsurance

The outbreak of severe flooding that affected parts of southeastern Australia during the month of October 2022 has been estimated as a roughly AU $791 million insurance industry loss by catastrophe data aggregator PERILS.

The Lloyd’s insurance and reinsurance marketplace is ready to support its participants response to the opportunity presented by rising rates in property and catastrophe business and the market may support updated business plans that seek to capitalise on this, Chief of Markets Patrick Tiernan suggested today.

Insurance and reinsurance companies based in Bermuda could end up taking as much as one-quarter of the industry losses from hurricane Ian’s impacts in Florida.

The two issues at the top of the agenda for lawmakers at next weeks Special Session of the legislature in Florida are reducing litigation and increasing the availability of reinsurance.

The California Earthquake Authority (CEA) was unable to fully renew all of its expiring reinsurance at October 1st resulting in a further shrinking of its risk transfer program and now the CEA is unsure whether it can renew all its expiring limit at the January 1st 2023 renewal as well.

While almost the entirety of the January 1 2023 reinsurance renewals are running late so far and quotes are seen as still thin on the ground, this is especially the case in retrocession, we’re told, where demands from capital providers for rate increases are also seen as particularly significant.

Tropical Storm Risk (TSR), one of the industry’s watched hurricane forecasting teams, has put out an extended range forecast for the 2023 Atlantic hurricane season, saying it believes it could see activity levels around 15% below the 30-year norm.

Inigo, the London headquartered specialty insurance and reinsurance underwriter with a Lloyd’s syndicate, has lifted the target size for its second catastrophe bond issuance slightly, with the Montoya Re Ltd. (Series 2022-2) deal now pitched at up to $110 million in size, but with the coupon having moved to the top-end of initial guidance.

The Florida property insurance market could face an even more challenging year ahead in 2023, as reinsurance capital loses its appetite for the state and private insurance capital shows now interest in moving in currently.

It appears that investors in the collateralized reinsurance sidecar vehicle of Oxbridge Re Ltd., the Cayman Islands based reinsurance firm, may support the insurers’ losses from hurricane Ian, as their share of income from the vehicle was recorded as zero for the third-quarter.