Insurance

The U.S. Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) has renewed the National Flood Insurance Program’s (NFIP) traditional reinsurance program at the January renewals, opting for a downsized $1.153 billion of coverage, but from an expanded panel of reinsurers. As we revealed back in September, FEMA was back in the reinsurance market and seeking expressions of interest…

The expected capacity shortage in the retrocessional reinsurance market did not materialise to the degree anticipated at the January 2021 renewals, resulting in a market that still firmed considerably, but did not experience the hardening many had been hoping for. New capital has played a role here, in moderating the eventual rate increases seen across…

Fermat Capital Management LLC, the Westport, Connecticut headquartered investment fund manager that, has lifted its catastrophe bond and insurance-linked securities (ILS) assets under management to $7.5 billion before the end of 2020. In fact, the latest figure we have for Fermat Capital Management’s catastrophe bond and ILS assets under management is for $7.5 billion as…

Issues related to the potential for insurance-linked securities (ILS) collateral to be trapped, because of uncertainty over the COVID-19 pandemic and its potential losses for the insurance and reinsurance industry, have largely been postponed until after the January renewals. While numerous insurance-linked securities (ILS) fund managers have already prudently reserved against every position they deemed…

With the merger of insurance and reinsurance broking giants Aon and Willis Towers Watson (WTW) coming under increased scrutiny from regulators, analysts at KBW suggest that should reinsurance arm Willis Re have to be divested, AJG would be seen as the “best fit” to acquire the WTW unit. The European Commission (EC) announced in December…

Global risk-adjusted property catastrophe reinsurance rates-on-line rose by an estimated 6% at the January 2021 reinsurance renewals, according to analysis by Howden Broking. That’s the biggest year-over-year increase in property catastrophe reinsurance rates seen in more than a decade, the broking group arm of Hyperion explained. At the same time, Howden sees retrocessional reinsurance rates…

Core Specialty, the recently launched recapitalised an rebranded excess and surplus lines (E&S) specialist underwriter, has picked Adam Tyburski, previously CUO of Spinnaker, for a key role as Co-Head of Personal Lines Fronted Programs. Core Specialty was recently born after a $610 million recapitalisation of Starstone U.S. from private equity giants including Dragoneer, SkyKnight and…

The resilience of the global reinsurance market “shone through” at the January 2021 renewals, which broker Willis Re says were less onerous than feared for ceding companies. Overall, global reinsurance capital recovered strongly in 2020 and a raft of capital raises and start-ups helped it to end the year up some 3%, according to the…

Catastrophe bond issuance reached record levels in 2020 and the busy year was topped-off with a record fourth-quarter as well, as the market demonstrated its resilience and ability to expand its relevance even under ongoing pandemic conditions, according to the latest report and data from Artemis. Our latest quarterly report on the catastrophe bond and…