Investments

Commercial insurance buyers are now facing the prospects of an extended hardening market thanks to the pandemic, as well as new pressures on contract terms and conditions, Willis Towers Watson said today. The insurance and reinsurance broker explained that persistent upward pricing pressure will be seen across most lines of business in North American commercial…

For our latest Artemis Live video interview I had a detailed and interesting discussion with Stephan Ruoff, the Deputy Head of insurance-linked securities (ILS) asset manager Schroder Secquaero, a specialist division of global investment group Schroders. All of our Artemis Live video interviews can be accessed directly from our YouTube Channel and we have more…

Pacific Gas and Electricity (PG&E), the wildfire stricken California focused electrical utility operator, has said that it could face more than $600 million of losses from the 2019 Kincade wildfire if its equipment is found liable for the fire’s ignition. At the moment it’s unknown whether PG&E could face these additional wildfire losses, which would…

The New York Metropolitan Transportation Authority’s (MTA) new  MetroCat Re Ltd. (Series 2020-1) catastrophe bond has now been priced, but at the top-end of the revised guidance after investors sought a higher return for the risk, with the deal also sticking at $100 million in size. As we explained yesterday, the price guidance for this…

Global insurance and reinsurance group Everest Re has significantly grown its underwriting book in the first-quarter of the year, reporting 21% growth in net premiums written in a quarter marred by Covid-19 pandemic related losses but in which it still managed to report a profit. Everest Re reported $16.6 million of net income for the…

Bermuda-based reinsurance firm and third-party capital management specialist RenaissanceRe has again reported a rise in the amount of fee income earned through its various third-party capital management and ILS fund activities, also paying out more in distributions to investors as well. RenaissanceRe (RenRe) entered the first-quarter of 2020 with a significantly increased pool of third-party…

Reinsurance giant Munich Re has reported a “financially manageable” hit of around EUR 800 million to its first-quarter 2020 results, from losses caused by the Covid-19 pandemic. The reinsurer reported much lower profits for the period with a net result of EUR 223 million across the business for Q1, down on the prior years EUR…

Catastrophe risk modelling specialist RMS has said that a hurricane striking the United States while pandemic restrictions remain in place could end up inflating the ultimate insurance and reinsurance industry loss by as much as 20%. RMS looks at post-loss amplification as part of its normal catastrophe risk modelling process and in the case of…

As we reported recently, Markel Corporation has invested $90 million of its own capital into an investment strategy managed by its retrocessional reinsurance focused investment manager Markel CATCo, to boost capital available to fund investor redemptions. The investment was made at the beginning of the year and Markel explained that as of January 1st 2020…