reinsurance

Adding the capital markets and insurance-linked securities (ILS) expertise acquired with TigerRisk Partners into the Howden Group business represents a “massive opportunity”, according to Founder and Chief Executive of Howden Group, David Howden.

Florida’s Citizens Property Insurance Corporation, the property insurer of last resort in the state, continues to work on filling out its reinsurance towers for the 2022 wind season, a process that has been a particular struggle given the challenging reinsurance market environment.

Despite the hardening of global reinsurance markets, the New Zealand Earthquake Commission (EQC), the state-owned residential property disaster insurance entity, has expanded its reinsurance program to a record size of $7.2 billion of protection.

Global reinsurance giant Swiss Re appears to have had a very successful visit to the catastrophe bond market with its latest and US hurricane focused Matterhorn Re Ltd. (Series 2022-2) deal, upsizing the coverage it will provide to $200 million, while also getting the protection at lower than guidance pricing.

On announcing the completion of the second catastrophe bond issuance domiciled in Hong Kong, the Insurance Authority’s CEO Clement Cheung explained that insurance-linked securities (ILS) are a focus as they gain increasing attention.

International insurance group Howden Group Holdings has announced the acquisition of reinsurance and risk capital advisory TigerRisk Partners, a deal that positions Howden as a global re/insurance intermediary with $30 billion of premiums placed through its business activities.

Giving an idea of the scale of the challenges faced by Florida’s property insurance marketplace, U.S. property casualty insurer, Heritage Insurance Holdings, Inc. has said that it is halting writing homeowners business in some counties as it awaits “meaningful and necessary legislative changes.”

AXIS Capital, the global specialty insurance and reinsurance underwriter, is back in the capital markets with what will be its sixth catastrophe bond, seeking at least $100 million of protection from a Northshore Re II Ltd. (Series 2022-1) issuance.

Speaking at a recent analyst conference, Swiss Re’s Group Chief Underwriting Officer Thierry Léger explained that pricing is now hard in the natural catastrophe reinsurance space, but that further rate hardening is also expected.

The insurance and reinsurance market industry loss estimate for the flooding that impacted eastern Australia earlier this year is rising considerably, with PERILS AG hiking its estimate by 23% to almost AU $4.9 billion (roughly US $3.5bn) on the back of extending the event loss period.