Trapped ILS capital news

After another challenging year of catastrophe losses in 2021, Bermuda based reinsurance firm and third-party capital manager RenaissanceRe went into the January 2022 renewals with its Upsilon collateralized reinsurance and retrocession vehicle significantly smaller than the prior year, its CEO revealed today.

Reinsurance rates and pricing have more ground to cover at the important June and July renewal seasons in 2022, as analysts and our sources all agree there is further catching up to do.

Deployable capital in the insurance-linked securities (ILS) market declined at the end of 2021 as the January 2022 reinsurance renewals approached, which resulted in some ILS investment managers making use of financing arrangements, we’re told.

Alternative reinsurance capital levels in the global industry grew 3.7% over the course of 2021, outpacing the 2.7% growth of traditional reinsurance industry capital, according to the latest estimate from broker Guy Carpenter and rating agency AM Best.

The CATCo Reinsurance Opportunities Fund Ltd., the listed, retrocession focused insurance-linked securities (ILS) fund strategy managed by Markel CATCo Investment Management, has reported another increase in net asset value (NAV) after loss reserves saw more favourable development.

Deployable (or not trapped and available to put to work) capital in the insurance-linked securities (ILS) sector is estimated to have fallen to around $70 billion to $75 billion, according to analysts at KBW.

Capacity to support aggregate retrocessional reinsurance renewals at 1/1 is “extremely scarce” according to analysts at KBW, who after a second day of meetings with Bermudian companies concluded that significant rate increases are going to be required for this segment of the market.

As the proposal of a process to buyout investors in the Markel CATCo Investment Management retrocessional reinsurance investment funds has been drawn out by legal appearances and is now waiting for a court decision to proceed, the investment manager has extended the expiry date of the support undertakings it received from investors.

Optimism over reinsurance renewal rate increases is said to be rising, as the market deals with a significantly delayed renewal timeline, for which a lack of aggregate retrocession capacity and trapped insurance-linked securities (ILS) capital are two of the drivers.

Progress in the buyout of investors in the Markel CATCo Investment Management retrocessional reinsurance investment funds is unlikely to be made until next year now, as the investment manager said a court decision is unlikely to come until January 22nd 2022.