Queensland’s October 2020 hailstorm industry loss raised 6% to A$1.3bn

The insurance and reinsurance market loss from a hailstorm event in October 2020 that struck south-east Queensland, Australia has been raised 6% to A$1.3 billion by PERILS AG. The hailstorm was originally designated as the first catastrophe to strike Australia of the 2020-21 season by the Insurance Council of Australia (ICA), with an expectation that…

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Argo promotes Tom McCartney to Group Head of Ceded Reinsurance

Argo Group, the Bermuda headquartered specialty insurance underwriter, has promoted Tom McCartney to the role of Group Head of Ceded Reinsurance, giving him responsibility for the companies reinsurance buying strategy. McCartney had joined Argo in early 2020 in a reinsurance buying focused role, as as vice president of ceded reinsurance for the Americas. Following the…

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Best of Artemis, week ending 31st January 2021

Here are the ten most popular news articles, week ending 31st January 2021, covering catastrophe bonds, ILS, reinsurance capital and related risk transfer topics. To ensure you never miss a thing subscribe to the weekly Artemis email newsletter updates or get our email alerts for every article we publish. Ten most read articles on Artemis.bm,…

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Aon & WTW cite alt. capital, disintermediation & marketplaces in defence of merger

Broking, advisory, benefits and consulting giants Aon and Willis Towers Watson have defended their merger, with a response to the New Zealand Commerce Commission that cites alternative reinsurance capital, disintermediation by the big four and marketplaces such as Tremor, as threats to their own combined business. The New Zealand Commerce Commission had opened a case…

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AXA XL promotes Patel to Head of AXA XL ILS Capital Management

AXA XL, the commercial property & casualty insurance and reinsurance arm of the AXA Group, promoted Niraj Patel to lead alternative capital activities as Head of AXA XL ILS Capital Management in late 2020, reporting to Peter Martin, who was also promoted to Head of Reinsurance Capital Management. As a reminder, Dan Brookman, the former…

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AXIS Re hires Argo’s Katie Partington Howarth as CUO

AXIS Re, the global reinsurance business of specialty re/insurer AXIS Capital, has appointed Katie Partington Howarth, who was formerly at Argo, as the new Chief Underwriting Officer for all of its reinsurance activities. As Chief Underwriting Officer and Head of the Reinsurance Products Division at AXIS Re, Partington Howarth will have responsibility for the global…

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FEMA sponsors fourth FloodSmart cat bond, targets $350m+ of reinsurance

The U.S. Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) has returned to the insurance-linked securities (ILS) market for its fourth catastrophe bond issuance, a currently $350 million FloodSmart Re Ltd. (Series 2021-1) transaction, seeking additional flood reinsurance coverage from the capital market for its National Flood Insurance Program (NFIP). As with FEMA’s previous FloodSmart Re catastrophe bonds…

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QBE centralises global reinsurance underwriting under Postlewhite in London

QBE, the Australian headquartered global insurance and reinsurance group, is centralising all of its global inwards reinsurance underwriting business to be managed in London under Steve Postlewhite. Stephen Postlewhite stepped up to become the Managing Director of QBE Re, the global reinsurance underwriting division of QBE, in Q1 of 2020. QBE said that it has…

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