Modelling firm AIR Worldwide has significantly revised its industry loss estimate for the October California wildfires to a range of $8bn to $10.5bn, up from an earlier $2bn-$3bn projection.
Allstate projected it will take $516mn of pre-tax catastrophe losses in October, with five Californian wildfires accounting for about 90 percent of the monthly total.
AM Best has said reinsurer profits could fall to a six-year low following catastrophes in the third quarter and that some companies may take up to three years to earn back losses.
The National Flood Insurance programme (NFIP) has started the process of renewing its reinsurance programme for 2018 as it issued a renewal tender for bids for cover.
The managers of start-up ILS fund Lutece Re said they had raised a "significant amount" of committed capital to begin underwriting at the 1 January renewals
