Trading Risk June 2017

Swiss Re has bolstered its retro support from the Sector Re sidecar by around $100mn in the past year to take the vehicle's total capacity to $492mn, Trading Risk understands.

Bermuda Stock Exchange (BSX) CEO, Greg Wojciechowski, has joined the board of the Bermuda Business Development Agency (BDA), the BDA announced.

Despite a softer-than-expected 1 June Florida renewal, hedging activity in the industry loss warranty (ILW) market has been slow, with buyers holding back amid a glut of capacity, sources said.

Access to people with money to spend is closely guarded in the insurance and reinsurance markets. Premium dollars are shepherded carefully from insurance agents to carriers and then brokers before eventually reaching reinsurers and ILS managers.

Asset managers in South Korea are offering ILS strategies to local investors after the country entered the sector last year, with at least $49mn having been raised from two local distributors.

A recent flurry of single-state cat bond deals highlighted continuing strong ILS demand as year-to-date issuance surpassed $8bn.

Four recent private and cat bond lite deals cleared during the mid-year renewals.

Newly issued cat bonds, including the latest Alamo Re and Citrus Re 2017-1, have already traded above par on the secondary market, in a sign of strong ILS demand.

Standards set by the Hedge Fund Standards Board (HFSB) can provide a pattern for ILS managers to mitigate potential conflicts of interest, Hiscox Re ILS COO Richard Lowther told Trading Risk.

LGT ILS funds; Wilton Re buys Aegon US run-off businesses; Cat bond funds reopen

The final version of the Insurance Open Protocol has cut back the frequency of reporting it requires from ILS managers in response to feedback received during the consultation period.

Larger residual insurers were among cedants that prospered in the June renewals from competition for US property catastrophe reinsurance business.