New Zealand’s sovereign wealth fund posted a 2 percent drop in its ILS holdings over its financial year while Ontario Teachers’ Pension Plan and Caisse de dépôt et placement du Québec invested $500mn in a new insurance investment platform.
Aspen Re has appointed Meredith Head as leader of North America property catastrophe.
She will join in September and report directly to Aspen Re CUO and Aspen Bermuda CEO Christian Dunleavy.
Markel Corporation has appointed AIG’s head of retail property in North America Guenter Kryszon as underwriting officer for global property, a position that includes partnering with Nephila.
Legacy insurer Quest and US investment firm Mangrove Partners have raised $300mn for a new Bermuda-based vehicle for legacy deals, sister publication The Insurance Insider has reported.
Perils has released an initial loss estimate of EUR1.47bn ($1.81bn) for extratropical cyclone Friederike, which hit the British Isles, Belgium, the Netherlands and Germany on 17 and 18 January.
Reinsurance buying strategies are likely to diverge ahead of the June renewals as some cedants attempt to agree capacity early and others sit tight in the hope of striking a better deal later on, sister publication The Insurance Insider has reported.
Liberty Mutual ceded $1.23bn to its reinsurance partners in 2017 following hurricanes Harvey, Irma, and Maria and the California wildfires, the company said in its end of year results on Monday.
The Nakama Re 2018-1 cat bond settled at $700mn, after expanding by nearly 200 percent over the course of marketing, according to Trading Risk sources.
Aspen will get quota share support from a separate cell of its Peregrine vehicle, after electing not to renew its Silverton Re sidecar at this year's renewals, according to a 10K filing.
Britain's Department for International Development (DFID) will invest £25mn ($35mn) over a 20-year period in the Natural Disaster Fund managed by Global Parametrics, the DFID has confirmed.
Berkshire Hathaway's $20bn legacy reinsurance transaction with AIG is set to cost it $1.8bn more than initially expected, the company said in its annual results.
Scor P&C earnings rose more than 94 percent to EUR344mn ($422.5mn) in Q4, as the carrier attributed its retro and ILS cover to helping it pass the "real-life stress test" of 2017.
United Insurance Holdings (UPC) lined up a new panel of quota share providers in January, as the firm said it had already renewed some of its loss-hit reinsurance layers ahead of the 1 June renewal.
PartnerRe took a $28mn operating loss for the fourth quarter as the impact of Q4 catastrophes was partially offset by a $23mn reduction in estimated losses from Hurricanes Harvey, Irma and Maria.
Zenkyoren's Nakama Re 2018-1 cat bond has more than doubled over the course of marketing to reach $700mn, after being marketed with an initial size of $250mn, Trading Risk understands.
Floridian carrier Heritage Insurance Holdings expects to reclaim $104.4mn from several tranches of its Citrus Re cat bond issuances following Hurricane Irma, Trading Risk has learned.
Alleghany took a $1.7mn loss during the full year from its investment in Pillar Capital, as a fourth quarter profit of $1.2mn from the Bermudian ILS manager partly offset third quarter losses.
The number of assignment-of-benefits (AOB) lawsuits in Florida rose for a third straight year reaching 129,781 in 2017, according to the Florida Justice Reform Institute.
The Bermuda Monetary Authority (BMA) has been criticised for demanding new disclosures from local alternative reinsurance operators without sufficient consultation with involved parties.
Seven districts of New Zealand have been declared a state of emergency as former cyclone Gita hit its west coast today with winds of up to 140 kilometres an hour.
Japanese technology firm SoftBank has requested several board positions as part of its proposed purchase of 20 to 30 percent of Swiss Re, according to the Financial Times.
The 7.2 magnitude earthquake which hit Mexico on Friday will not trigger a pay out from the World Bank's new CAR 118 - 119 cat bond issued earlier this month.
The Bermuda Monetary Authority (BMA) has asked local alternative reinsurance operators to disclose a detailed schedule of contracts written and losses incurred, including within loss-struck 2017 portfolios.
Initial industry loss estimates for last year's catastrophe events were probably too high to begin with, Arch Capital chief operating officer Marc Grandisson said on the company's fourth quarter earnings call.
MultiStrat has announced that it has completed a $28mn casualty linked securities (CLS) deal covering high-frequency and low-severity casualty business for a $14bn alternative asset manager.
The abundance of ILS and traditional capital is reducing the likelihood of a sustained rate hardening in catastrophe-exposed US insurance business, Willis Towers Watson has said in its update on the US property market.
Australian carrier Suncorp exceeded its natural catastrophe claims budget for the six months to 31 December by A$65mn ($51.8mn), primarily driven by losses from the Victoria hailstorm in December.
Ratings agency, Demotech, is yet to pass judgement on 16 Floridian insurers it covers after affirming ratings on the majority of this peer group in a recent announcement.
Australian carrier IAG recouped A$120mn ($94mn) from reinsurers on its aggregate programme during the six months ended 31 December, helping to keep its catastrophe losses below budget.
MS Amlin took 77.8bn yen ($724mn) of losses from last year's hurricanes and Californian wildfires, with 24.9bn yen ($232mn) of these losses coming through in the fourth quarter due to the Californian wildfires.
Swedish state pension fund AP2 has reported that the fair value of its ILS investments held steady in US dollar terms throughout the course of 2017, reaching 5.13bn Kronor ($627mn) at year-end 2017.
Arch Capital has put its fourth quarter net catastrophe losses at just $0.8mn, as losses from the Californian wildfires were offset by reductions to its claims linked to third quarter hurricanes.
Markel Catco's "eye-catching" hike to its wildfire loss reserves in its December monthly report implies that the Californian disasters triggered the firm's "floating back-up" pillars, according to a Numis analyst's note.
Perils has given an initial loss estimate for extra-tropical Cyclone Eleanor of EUR 643mn ($789.3mn), coming in well below modelled loss projections that the storm could surpass EUR1bn in damages.
MyLotto24 has returned to the ILS market with its third ILS structure, Hoplon III, which comprises a combination of collateralised reinsurance and a cat bond.
Seven new tranches of tradeable ILS notes have been issued on Solidum Partners' private blockchain with the deals totalling around $15mn of reinsurance limit, the Zurich-based ILS manager said.
Japanese insurer Zenkyoren has returned to the cat bond market after a one-year absence, with a $250mn two-tranche Nakama Re 2018-1 cat bond which will cover Japanese earthquake risk.
PCS has largely reversed an earlier cut to its loss forecast for Hurricane Irma, estimating the insured damage at $17.2bn, sister publication The Insurance Insider reported.
Axis CEO Albert Benchimol said the company had significantly grown the amount of business it cedes to third-party capital in 2018 as it said it had more than $1.05bn of alternative capital support for property catastrophe business.
Markel Catco's "eye-catching" hike to its wildfire loss reserves in its December monthly report implies that the Californian disasters triggered the firm's "floating back-up" pillars, according to a Numis analyst's note.
One of the major post-HIM talking points in reinsurance circles was the question of whether there was a gap in loss estimates recognised by individual carriers and the overall anticipated industry burden.
Securis has parted ways with its head of origination Neil Strong after a significant management restructure that has elevated Paul Larrett to the new role of chief underwriting officer and head of non-life analytics.
Baillie Gifford has lowered its stake in the ordinary shares on offer from the Catco Reinsurance Opportunities Fund, according to a London Stock Exchange filing.
Axis said it would combine its ceded reinsurance operations and third-party capital business into a single department as it announced a broader restructure.
Assets under management (AuM) controlled by the top 10 ILS firms reached $64bn at the start of 2018, as Markel said that Markel Catco's asset base reached $6.1bn and as Credit Suisse Asset Management posted $8.8bn of assets.
Aspen increased the amount of third party capital it has under management to $550mn at this year's renewals, up 20 percent from the same period in 2017.
ILS spreads have widened in the mid-to-high teens range after last year's losses, Swiss Re Capital Markets estimated in its latest quarterly market report.
First quarter cat bond issuance has already reached $1.56bn after the World Bank's Latin American earthquake cat bond upsized to close at $1.36bn, according to Trading Risk data.
First quarter cat bond issuance has already reached $1.56bn after the World Bank's Latin American earthquake cat bond upsized to close at $1.36bn, according to Trading Risk data.
Pricing for industry loss warranties is up by 15-30 percent on loss-affected covers, according to figures from brokers, as the market picks up after a slow start to the year.
The second-largest ILS manager posted a $200mn incremental gain in assets under management in January as it said it chose not to draw down on some post-loss capacity.
AIG's surprise move to take over AlphaCat parent Validus continues the trend for reinsurer-affiliated asset managers to dominate M&A activity within the ILS management sector.
Bermuda-based (re)insurer XL Catlin placed more than $500mn of new catastrophe limit for 2018 and increased alternative market retro support to more than $3bn, as ceding strategies among major carriers diverged following last year's losses.
Losses from US primary habitational and coastal hotel accounts have driven pockets of localised hardening in the US commercial property insurance market, with rate increases of as much as 70 percent for some risks.
The 2017 calendar year was the costliest on record for weather events, with insured losses estimated at $132bn, according to Aon Benfield's Impact Forecasting.
Abuse of side pockets in the financial crisis - when hedge funds locked in investors to avoid having to sell off discounted assets - has made the practice less palatable in the wider financial markets.
The strategy of Langhorne Re, the closed-ended life fund set up last month by RenaissanceRe and life reinsurer Reinsurance Group of America (RGA), will be based largely around a leveraged asset play, according to sources.
Swiss Re said it was in preliminary discussions with Japan's SoftBank Group that could lead to a significant minority investment in the big European reinsurer by the conglomerate.
XL Group shares jumped 12.5 percent yesterday after a Bloomberg report said the Bermuda-based (re)insurer was drawing takeover interest from Allianz and possibly others.