Insurance

The ongoing winter storm event in the United States, dubbed winter storm Uri, is thought likely to become the largest winter storm loss on record for the insurance and reinsurance industry, while the Texas insurance regulator said it could be a bigger impact than hurricane Harvey. Texas is the state front and centre of the…

Global reinsurance giant Swiss Re reported its full-year 2020 results this morning, highlighting $3.9 billion of losses from the COVID-19 pandemic and $1.7 billion from what it called a higher frequency of natural catastrophe events. Swiss Re also provided a forecast for a further up to $500 million of pandemic related claims in 2021, suggesting…

Universal Insurance Holdings, the Florida headquartered, nationally expansive primary insurance carrier, announced last night that it has taken a nearly $100 million hit from catastrophe losses and loss creep from prior year events during the fourth-quarter of 2020. Universal said that “unprecedented” storm activity drove an total net impact of approximately $76 million, pre-tax (approximately…

American International Group’s (AIG) reinsurance program has undergone a critical evolution over the last year with a range of changes now made at the January 1st 2021 renewals to reflect the underlying changes to the insurers portfolio, incoming CEO Peter Zaffino has explained. Zaffino was speaking during the AIG fourth-quarter earnings call this week, the…

The U.S. Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) will be delighted with the outcome of its latest visit to the catastrophe bond market, as its FloodSmart Re Ltd. (Series 2021-1)  issuance will now secure the upsized target of $557 million of reinsurance protection, while pricing has been fixed at the bottom of an already reduced range.…

Catastrophe bonds and insurance-linked securities are one of the “very few genuinely, structurally diversifying asset classes,” according to the Neuberger Berman Insurance-Linked Strategies team, who give the asset class a positive outlook for 2021. Writing in a white paper, the Insurance-Linked Strategies team of global asset manager Neuberger Berman explain that they also believe catastrophe…

Hymans Robertson LLP, the pensions and financial services consultants, is anticipating more non-traditional risk transfer for pensions, including through the use of capital backed solutions and alternative insurance products. As a result, the company has promoted Kieran Mistry to the newly created position of Head of Non-Traditional Risk Transfer. In this role, Mistry will lead…

Hong Kong headquartered global reinsurer Peak Reinsurance Company Limited (Peak Re) has now revealed that it successfully renewed its Lion Rock Re fully collateralised reinsurance sidecar at a larger size of $107 million for 2021. As we reported back in January, Peak Re was in the process of renewing its sidecar vehicle for 2021, as…

The Aon and Willis Towers Watson (WTW) merger will “significantly lessen competition” in the supply of commercial risk, reinsurance and employee benefits broking, the Australian Competition & Consumer Commission is concerned. The Australian Competition & Consumer Commission (ACCC) is not the first to raise significant concerns about the merger, as similar issues had been raised…