Trading Risk June 2019

Rates are believed to be around 15-30 percent up in the retro market, helping in turn to support increased rates in the Florida renewal.

Ultimately, with advantages and challenges in any ownership situation, the parentage of an ILS platform is not going to be the determining factor in its success.

However, the verdict on whether Florida rate increases were enough to satisfy underwriters still seems a split one.

The Florida Hurricane Catastrophe Fund (FHCF) is marketing its $1bn reinsurance programme but has indicated it is looking for flat risk-adjusted rates, according to sources.

Some of the largest Florida carriers increased their reinsurance limits at this renewal, but they were able to keep control of overall expenditure by opting for more Florida Hurricane Catastrophe Fund (FHCF) protection.

As the FCA updates the market on its view of the Woodford funds saga, some of the material it is publishing has echoes that may resonate within the ILS market.

Only around half the $3.4bn of cat bonds that have matured this year so far have been renewed, with a further $3.3bn of deals set to expire over the rest of 2019, according to Trading Risk data.

A paper by academics at Hamburg University compared the results of the Swiss Re global cat bond indices against indices from various other sectors.

All insurance has a social purpose but covers for lower income countries should probably be considered more impactful transaction than Florida coastal risk.

The streak of tornadoes in the US this May means 2019 is set to have highest level of activity since 2011 but the impact on (re)insurers will be offset by lower than average hail events.

Swiss Re has increased the capacity of its Sector Re sidecar to $670mn, despite a tightening of the wider retro market.

Stone Ridge Asset Management has once again been forced to ration redemption requests at its interval fund after investors sought to cash out nearly a quarter of the fund’s share base, Trading Risk can reveal.

Catalina, Premia and a consortium made up of Compre and Hudson Structured are among the bidders through to the second round of the sale process for the Standard Syndicate and Charles Taylor’s Lloyd’s business, sister publication The Insurance Insider reported.

The Pennsylvania Public School Employees’ Retirement System (PSERS) fund nearly doubled its ILS investments as it reloaded after the 2017 catastrophe losses, taking its holdings in the sector to $803mn at 30 June 2018.

Swiss funds active in ILS recorded stable or slightly increased allocations after 2017’s losses.

The ILS market has broadly welcomed moves by the Bermuda Monetary Authority (BMA) to create a new collateralised insurance vehicle, but opinions vary on whether the new rules will prove to be onerous.

Ten months on from Typhoon Jebi, there is still considerable uncertainty around why the storm’s insured losses are expected to be so much higher than the initial modelled figures.

Aspen Re has appointed Meredith Head as leader of North America property catastrophe. She will join in September and report directly to Aspen Re CUO and Aspen Bermuda CEO Christian Dunleavy.