Trading Risk April 2017

The first quarter of 2017 produced a record volume of ILS issuance for an opening quarter, as competitive pricing drew sponsors to the market

First quarter returns from a number of ILS funds investing in private reinsurance instruments have come in significantly below gains delivered in the same period last year, in what is likely a reflection of elevated catastrophe activity in Australia

Cincinnati Financial has forecast it will take pre-tax catastrophe claims of $106mn in its Q1 results, eroding a significant portion of the deductible on its Skyline Re private cat bond.

Reinsurers attempted to "hold the line" on pricing in the 1 April renewals, but carrier demand for business meant rate reductions continued to be on offer for buyers

Demand for crop reinsurance is falling rapidly, partly due to M&A in the underlying insurance business, sister publication The Insurance Insider reported

Demand for crop reinsurance is falling rapidly, partly due to M&A in the underlying insurance business, sister publication The Insurance Insider reported

A decade ago, cat bonds were almost universally rated - usually by Standard & Poor's and sometimes by Fitch Ratings

One often-cited statistic in debates about the convergence market is that just a 1 percent allocation from global institutional investors could send billions more capital than the size of the current overall reinsurance market surging into the sector

Insurers of the future are likely to move to more of a banking model by sourcing risk to transfer directly to institutional investors instead of holding onto the bulk of their liabilities, according to the president of TigerRisk Capital Markets & Advisory

Transferring a broader range of risks from outside the catastrophe market would help develop better partnerships between insurance carriers and ILS capital providers, Generali's reinsurance buyer Mirko Sartori has argued

Generali's Horse Capital I was named winner of the Non-Life Transaction Award of the Year at the 2017 Trading Risk awards

Two major US sidecar investors, Pioneer and Stone Ridge, grew their assets by more than $500mn overall in the quarter ended 31 January 2017