Financial

Markel Corporation has put some of its own money behind the running-off of its retrocessional reinsurance investment manager Markel CATCo, investing $90 million in one of the CATCo funds in the first-quarter to boost capital available to fund investor redemptions. Markel has repeatedly shown its commitment to ensuring investors in the catastrophe loss stricken Markel…

Swiss Re, the Zurich headquartered global reinsurance firm, has fallen to a group net loss of -$225 million for the first-quarter of 2020, after taking a pre-tax charge of $476 million for its property and casualty businesses due to the Covid-19 pandemic. Swiss Re has set aside a considerable reserve for the initial expected claims…

Catastrophe bond and insurance-linked security (ILS) rates-on-line were up by a huge 13% in Q1 2020 and have risen by 56% since the end of 2016, as measured by the synthetic ILS rate-on-line Index calculated by Lane Financial. It puts cat bond and ILS rates firmly in hard market territory, with the Lane Financial rate-on-line…

Markel Corporation reported its first-quarter 2020 results yesterday and in its report the company warned of the potential hit to its insurance-linked securities (ILS) operations from the Covid-19 pandemic, which is perhaps partly evidenced in a -4% decline in assets under management at Markel’s flagship ILS fund manager Nephila Capital. Markel, the global insurance, reinsurance…

Hudson Structured Capital Management Ltd., the insurance-linked securities (ILS), reinsurance- and transportation- focused investment manager, is making a $20 million equity investment in specialist non-life insurance and reinsurance legacy investor and program manager Randall & Quilter (R&Q) Investment Holdings. Randall & Quilter (R&Q) is actually raising $100 million through new investments from institutional quality capital…

AXIS Capital, the Bermuda headquartered specialty insurance and reinsurance company, has revealed an expectation that the Covid-19 pandemic will drive some $235 million of losses, the majority of which will be in its property book. AXIS Capital gave a preview of the expected first-quarter hit to earnings from catastrophe events and severe weather losses, revealing…

Insurance and reinsurance broker Aon has revealed a raft of pay cuts affecting its staff around the globe, as well as other expense saving initiatives, all of which reflects the expectation that the broking industry may face particularly acute pain as a result of the Covid-19 economic slowdown. While insurance and reinsurance underwriting companies face…