Trading Risk January 2018

PartnerRe has named Greg Haft as deputy CEO for specialty lines. He will work with company CEO Emmanuel Clarke, who has assumed direct responsibility for the segment.

MS Amlin's chief underwriting officer Simon Beale will take over as the company's new CEO following the retirement of Charles Philipps in April

Chaucer has appointed Jerome Faure as an independent non-executive director of Chaucer Syndicates, its managing agency and main operating company

XL Catlin has reshuffled several roles after forming a partnership with private investment firm Gallatin Point Capital LLC in a bid to expand its alternative capital capabilities

Validus has reorganised its senior management team as part of a strategic move to promote closer collaboration between units including specialty insurer Talbot, US insurer Western World and asset management operation AlphaCat

Luca Tres, head of life at Securis, says the life ILS sector needs to steer clear of leveraged asset plays, which could fail if the wider markets collapse

A smooth reloading of ILS capital and a glut of capacity contributed to catastrophe reinsurance rates rising by less than reinsurers had pushed for following last year's losses, brokers said in early post-renewals reports

The momentum for retro rate increases at the January renewals slowed at the end of last year, sources said, as lack of new demand and a smooth reload of lost capital meant increases fell short of expectations

There was a fresh surge of reinsurer sidecar launches during the January renewals, in a signal that further carriers are belatedly recognising the value of managing third-party capital

A group of sidecars tracked by Trading Risk took losses of 13.0 percent on average between July and October as the fallout from hurricanes Harvey, Irma and Maria took its toll

Sequant Re; First Republic; Private equity buy-up; PGGM's Leo expansion

There was a wide spread of returns among cat bond fund managers in 2017, with a small average loss of 0.44 percent recorded for the year