Hurricane

Swiss Re has said 2017 will be one of the costliest years ever for catastrophes with insured losses predicted to hit $136bn - more than double the total of last year

Atlantic basin hurricane activity in 2018 is likely to be above the long-term average with 15 named tropical storms, seven hurricanes and three intense hurricanes, according to a forecast summary by Tropical Storm Risk (TSR)

Florida's state-backed carrier Citizens has planned for an 8 percent rise in its private risk-transfer costs in 2018, following this year's global catastrophe losses.

Florida carrier United Insurance Holdings (UPC Insurance) said its $150mn public debt offering which closed yesterday would enable the company to participate in future opportunities

Hurricanes Harvey and Irma have eroded the reinsurance towers of Floridian homeowners' insurers by 15 percent, according to Keefe, Bruyette & Woods

Markel Catco has set up a further loss reserve of 4.4 percent of net asset value (NAV) for its Catco Reinsurance Opportunities Fund to cover losses from the wildfires in northern California in October, according to a London Stock Exchange announcement.

A total of 21 cat bond deals have been impacted by Hurricanes Harvey, Irma and Maria with combined writedowns of $913mn, Lane Financial has said in its latest report.

A number of outsized third quarter losses at Lloyd's insurers has highlighted the London market's concentrated exposure to the 2017 hurricanes

This year marked the 25th anniversary of Hurricane Andrew, a storm that would cost reinsurers $56bn if it recurred today, according to modelling company AIR Worldwide

Is the combination of the Harvey, Irma and Maria (HIM) hurricanes a once-in-a-career event for reinsurance underwriters or likely to happen more often?

The ILS sector continued to see new launches in 2017, as the fallout from hurricanes Harvey, Irma and Maria gave momentum to a number of niche start-ups.

This year began with a flurry of cat bond transactions while existing sponsors took advantage of the soft market and expanded their coverage, as 2017 set a new record for cat bond issuance.