Specialty lines

The reinsurer is the second sponsor opting not to renew cyber coverage in the bond market this year.

CFO Vogt added that the vehicle’s impact from earned premiums should ramp up from 2026 through 2029.

The syndicate is expected to write ~$300mn of business in 2026.

Competition on price from traditional markets is weighing on bond market momentum.

The cedant’s current deal is due to mature at the end of January 2026.

The executive is charged with defrauding investors out of nearly $500mn.

Spectrum joins investors ForgePoint, Hudson and MTech.

Vantage Group Holdings received a BBB- long-term issuer credit rating.

The tech firm is building a joint stock company with insurers and investors.

It is understood that CyberCube has been considering a sale of the business.

Ryan Alternative Capital Re was launched in partnership with Axis Capital.

Syndicate 1440 was approved to assume business incepting January 2026.

American Integrity grew GWP by 30% to $287mn and Slide GWP was up 25% to $435mn in Q2.

The new team will be headed by Brown & Brown’s Ed Byrns.

Scor's CEO said the P&C market had experienced a “competitive” first half.

The broker has noted that double-digit reductions are increasingly available in property.

Matthew Flynn joins from RenaissanceRe.

Cat bond broking growth contributed to 6% organic growth in reinsurance.

The measure could have landed insurers with extra tax on US business.

A group of Bermuda staff also left the broker.

David Baldwin joins from EIRS where he was a senior reinsurance consultant.

Last week, TSR updated its forecast and is now predicting above-average storm activity.

TSR previously predicted activity slightly below the 1995-2024 average.

The agency forecasts up to five major hurricanes and 19 named storms.

Fox highlighted the increasing role of alternative capital and creative financial vehicles.

The targeted uplift comes after Mercury ceded nearly $1.3bn of wildfire losses to reinsurers in Q1.

The headcount at the start-up now stands at around 40.

Sources believe the market will grow gradually over years after its initial cluster of dealmaking.

Ark's combined ratio included 25 points of catastrophe losses in Q1.

AIG, HDI Global and others have settled, while Chubb’s fight continues.

Richard Pennay also addressed the dip in cyber ILS activity.

The renewal and upsizing of the Trouvaille E&S sidecar highlighted the market’s potential.

The announcement spurred a quick spike in stock market valuations.

Torrey Pines Re is split among three tranches of notes.

The reinsurance broker said total reinsurance market capacity was up 5.3% year over year.

The deal is 45% larger than 2024’s issuance after attracting a “greater number of investors”.

Cat losses last month were lighter than historical trends, but all eyes are on Q1 figures.

The executive will remain with the firm as a senior adviser to the CEO until mid-2026.

Deputy CUO Sam Geddes will lead the division.

The former Credit Suisse ILS head Niklaus Hilti said working on life buyout hedges could rejuvenate the life ILS market.

Novelty premiums will likely fade once investors are more comfortable with the risk.

In June 2023, Hale Partnership got its license from the Cayman Islands Monetary Authority for HP Re.

Other capacity supporting the syndicate is mostly individual Names, sources have said.

The model factors in the effects of climate change to date.

CEO Adrian Cox said Beazley’s recent $290mn ILW purchase was not driven by “capital flexibility in and of itself”.

The Mexican cat bond offers $125mn of protection against Atlantic named storms.

The panelists discussed the ILS reset and the path to maintaining discipline in this sector.

The deal has reduced the carrier’s one-in-250-year cyber loss scenario from $651mn to $461mn.

The deal is offering a multiple of 11.3x on the expected loss.

The bond offers a multiple of 11.3x based on a modelled expected loss of 0.93%.

The bond is offering a spread range of 950-1,050 basis points.

Portfolios of clients of varying size in the same region aggregate more risk.

Building better exposure datasets could draw a broader range of investors.

The insurer currently has $300mn of reinsurance limit from cyber cat bonds.

The peril can no longer be considered secondary, according to Gallagher Re.

The July downtime will increase relevance, demand and innovation for the market.

The carrier estimates the total industry loss for the Microsoft/CrowdStrike outage at around $1bn-$2bn.

The broker said less than 1% of companies globally with cyber insurance were impacted.

The firm said losses could fall under $300mn if more favourable assumptions were applied.

The profile of the loss could provide comfort to investors around exposure diversification.

The event would represent a loss ratio impact of roughly 3%-10% on global cyber premiums of $15bn today.

The market is expected to seek additional exclusions around systemic events.

The weighted average direct financial loss for a Fortune 500 firm was $44mn.

Hannover Re's cyber bond pays on a parametric basis for each hour after an agreed waiting period.

The analyst estimated Beazley’s loss from the global outage at $80mn-$120mn.

The current guidance is that Beazley will publish an undiscounted CoR in the low-80s at full year.

The event could unpack issues around accumulation risk and cloud services.

ILS capital so far is viewed by sponsors as strategic rather than essential.

The second part of the PoleStar Re issuance takes the bond's total volume to $300mn.

The early May forecast is driven by factors including the El Niño Southern Oscillation.

State interference is likely to be required if an attack is large enough to trigger bonds now on the market, experts say.

The consortium will offer up to $50mn of per-program capacity.

The ILS market’s exposure could grow to $1.5bn by the time a major cyber cat event occurs.

The reinsurer said it hopes to grow the size of the $13.75mn deal over time.

Stefan Sperlich will lead the new unit as managing director.

Revenue, country and industry sector drive modelled output divergence.

Liquidity is a key driver of investor activity.

Some $415mn of capacity entered the market last year.

The client lacked options in the conventional insurance market.

Envelop SPA 1925 was launched at the start of the year with Chris Baddeley as active underwriter, based in London.

The insurer said it has received 19,000 claims from affected policyholders so far, with nearly 65% of these coming from customers in Queensland.

The $50mn bond provides coverage against systemic cyber events in the US and District of Columbia.

George Mawdsley joins after more than 10 years at Securis, where he was tasked with structuring and origination of ILS risk.

The carrier has also extended the redemption period by three years, to 31 March 2029.

The transaction is the second cyber cat bond in 144A format to price and follows Axis’s Long Walk Re deal in November.

The 144A cyber cat bond deal has increased in size from an initial target of $75mn.

The year brought a degree of closure on the loss-hit years of 2017-2021, while the outlook remains changeable for ILS managers.

Chubb’s East Lane Re bond is the third cyber cat bond in 144A form to enter the market.

The $75mn Long Walk Re deal secured broad market support from ILS investors.

The business will service clients in the agriculture, renewable energy and construction industries.

The $75mn cat bond will cover systemic cyber events on a per-occurrence basis.

The $75mn cat bond is expected to close in late November.

The CCRIF has paid out $265mn since its inception in 2007.

Sources have raised concerns that cedant demand could outpace available capacity for cyber cat bonds.

Executives said geopolitical uncertainty, economic stagnation, cyber, cat events and inflation will drive demand on the Continent.

The US could be exposed to economic losses of $1.1tn in the event of a cyberattack, the highest of any country.

Cyber reinsurance has around $500mn of annual capacity currently supporting the space.

A number of players suggested that the cost components of first-party claims were up between 30%-50% on that seen during Ransomware Wave One.

Experts at the Trading Risk New York conference emphasised in-built cyber risk protections from defences to exclusions, as ILS managers grapple with understanding the peril.

The mortgage insurer last closed a similar deal more than two years ago.

The business specialises in space and terror risks.

The founding members include Munich Re, Gallagher Re, and BitSight.

The carrier describes reinsurers’ current strategy of dealing with cyber policies as "a game of whack-a-mole"

The broker studied the impact of 14 major cyber events in its attempt to dispel ILS manager fears of a ‘double whammy’ cyber event that would also impact financial markets.

A total of 10 events caused more than $1bn in losses each.

Tornados in the first six months of the year in the US were slightly above the 27-year average.

At this week's Bermuda Climate Summit, speakers heralded the Island's future as a centre of excellence for climate-related innovation and risk transfer.

The new SPA will write cyber reinsurance initially and could progress to writing insurance.

The cyber MGA can now serve clients in Italy, Spain, Ireland, Sweden and Denmark.

A Guy Carpenter report recently noted that risk models are converging for the most remote risk levels.

The broker named Matthew McCabe as MD of cyber broking with a brief to tackle complex cyber issues.

New language has been introduced by some insurers to limit exposures to cyber risks.

Analysis showed a modelled loss range of between $15.6bn and $33.4bn for a 1:200-year global loss event.

Guy Carpenter was the sole placing broker sourcing capacity for the tie-up.

In a discussion at Trading Risk’s London ILS 2023 conference, panellists compared the current cyber ILS market to the cat market in the 1990s.

Spectra has in-principle approval for a Bermuda broker license but believes cyber ILS solutions will be a game of “slow progress”.

Fort Lauderdale Hollywood airport was forced to close as a result of the flooding caused by the 25 inches of rain that fell on Wednesday and Thursday.

Lloyd’s has launched a fund on its new investment platform to enable the market to invest globally in assets themed around climate adaptation, mitigation and social inclusion.

The £50mn syndicate made most of its profits in aviation.

It is understood that the company has mandated Nomura to raise the risk capital.

Reinsurers congregating in Bermuda flagged a lack of interest in helping under-capitalised Floridian insurers and under-priced diversifiers, with positive implications for ILS participation.

Beazley executives spoke of further growth prospects in the class, after its results revealed a 79% combined ratio for its cyber division in 2022.

The issuance is replacing $400mn of cat bond coverage placed in early 2020.

Structures have been developed that would avoid “excessive capital trapping”.

The transactions would protect ceding (re)insurers against outages of the cloud.

The regulator examined carriers’ ability to model nat-cat and cyber events, with mixed results.

Beazley’s bond was hailed as a “great first step” but challenges remain, although others are already working on narrower cloud outage transactions.

The transaction is the first proportional deal for cyber risk in the capital markets.  

The state is contending with flash flooding, mudslides, rockslides, power outages and high winds.

Beazley’s $45mn first-time cyber cat bond offered all-perils coverage, though some expected early deals to start with limited scope.

Landslides, avalanche risks and submerged highways are just some of the extreme consequences of the storms.

Cedants are grappling with rising rates while coverage narrows.

The city of Buffalo in New York state was worst impacted, but power was also knocked out in areas stretching from Maine to Seattle.

Scott Stephenson, former chairman, president and CEO of Verisk, will join CyberCube’s board after participating in the funding round.

CEO Rob Berkley said the company would likely participate in the space for one to three years if rates remain favorable.

A special session in December and prohibition of assignments of benefits have been cited on the Florida campaign trail.

The two ILS firms were among those participating in a $20mn fundraise for Elpha Secure Technology.

The storm, currently 285 miles south of Charleston, is expected to make landfall as a hurricane on Friday.

Georgia, Virginia and the Carolinas have declared a state of emergency as the storm moves north.

The storm has sped up considerably over the past six hours.

The storm is currently at Cat 4 strength but will weaken to Cat 3 as it approaches land.

The price for risk carrying is no longer insufficient, Munich Re's CEO said in a Monte Carlo briefing.

The carrier said geopolitical factors had given “new urgency” to the green transition.

The deal will bring cyber modelling and analytics to the risk transfer market.

ABIR reported that Bermudians posted a total loss ratio of 69.9% and a combined ratio of 100.1% last year.

Cyber risk ILS will grow slowly in the short-to-medium term, S&P Global Ratings has predicted.

The hydrogen industry is a key pillar of the energy transition, but securing insurance coverage is challenging.

New research estimates one in six chance of magnitude 7 or higher eruption this century.

Envelop anticipates that cyber ILS could hit $100mn of GWP within four years

The new recruit has worked for Argo, Allianz and the European Space Agency.

This is UPC’s latest attempt to downsize after offloading part of its personal lines business to HCI.

The pooled parametric insurance arrangement was trigged by localised drought.

Responsible investing in ILS requires “look-through data transparency”, the association says.

Guy Carpenter, Aon and Gallagher Re are each understood to be preparing to enter the nascent sector.

The follow-only vehicle initially launched in January with a more limited set of permissions.

Experts say cyber ILS offerings including cat bonds could be near, but concerns over structures, modelling and correlation persist.

The firm’s goal is to raise its own capital and partner with others.

The agency highlighted potential aviation losses from the war ranging from $6bn to $15bn.

The new firm says ESG criteria will be embedded into the products.

As part of the deal, ICEYE will provide Fermat with near real-time flood data for large-scale events.

Windstorm Nadia/Malik was one of several to strike the region this winter.

The company hired Ambac’s Scott Snyder as president of fronted programs.

The 2020s is the key decade for action to limit global warming and its impacts.

Cyber reinsurance premiums may exceed those of property cat by 2040.

The move reflects the firm’s growing interest in risks beyond nat cat.

The issuance will be the fifth time to market in FEMA’s cat bond series

This is the first natural catastrophe loss under the World Bank series of ILS deals since 2019.

Another pandemic outbreak came in fourth place, with 22% of respondents saying they were worried about further health and workforce issues and movement restrictions in 2022.

Some programs had to be restructured as rates hardened and capacity flowed away from cat risk in some cases.

As the renewal is expected to spill over into 2022, the two-speed market will put pressure on retro-reliant carriers.

The change in plan comes as Lloyd’s restricts cyber growth.

CyberCube forecast further capital market capacity will hit the cyber insurance market next year.

The firm’s estimate fell at the lower end of the range for historic Top 10 tornado events.

Aon’s Impact Forecast has suggested that only a limited portion of the loss will pass to reinsurers.

The Lloyd’s chief of markets also highlighted inflationary risks as a trend of which to be aware for syndicates.

The storm tore through north-western Europe in October, with major losses in France, Germany and Belgium.

The firm’s senior meteorologist noted activity was in line with expectations on major storms, if not all named storms.

Theo Norris has joined Gallagher Re as a dedicated cyber ILS broker, moving from his Aon Securities role as acting ILS assistant vice president.

Maya Bundt referred to cyber security threats as the “dark side” of proliferating digitalisation.

The executive said there was a strong case for meaningful rate increases in reinsurance.

The reinsurer aims to become carbon-neutral in operations by 2030, whilst its reinsurance target date is 2050.

AM Best sees accumulating cyber risk in the US property market downgrading 18 US property carriers, considering Best’s Capital Adequacy Ratio.

The city’s pension fund recorded a 3% return from its ILS portfolio in 2020.

The storm has dumped more than nine inches of rain on the city of Houston and risks further damage to Ida-hit properties.

In its renewal season update, the carrier said Bernd, Ida, Uri and the pandemic would force up pricing across lines and regions.

The 13th named storm of the season made landfall in the Florida Panhandle on Wednesday.

It is not so much the size of the hit, as the regularity of moderate cat events that is worrying risk-takers.

It recognised the debate surrounding the “plausibility” of such scenarios.

At least 22 people have been killed, with 3,000 power outages reported in Humphreys County as of Monday morning.

The hurricane made landfall near Tulum, registering a 986mb pressure reading.

While the total number of hurricanes has not changed significantly, the global proportion of major hurricanes has increased over the past 40 years.

The tropical depression looks set to hit the Sunshine State in the early hours of Saturday morning.

NHC says the weather system is likely to threaten Florida by the weekend.

The German insurance association called the low-pressure system Bernd ‘one of the most devastating in recent history’.

The deaths were reported in the town of Bad Neuenahr-Ahrweiler, south of Bonn and west of the Rhine river.

The storm was the earliest named E storm, forming nearly six weeks earlier than average.

A spell of tornadoes, rain and hailstorms across the continent drove the loss activity.

It hit north of Tampa, and storm surge warnings for wider Gulf Coast were discontinued.

It was upgraded to a category one hurricane by the National Hurricane Centre last night before being downgraded in a public advisory at 2am (EDT).

It said the current threat posed by Tropical Storm Elsa was an example of storms being more likely to hit America’s Eastern Seaboard this season.

The rebrand follows a last-minute acquisition of the firm by Aquiline-owned Lloyd’s syndicate ERS, in December of last year.

Executives including AIG CEO Peter Zaffino, Aon CEO Greg Case and Munich Re CEO Joachim Wenning have joined the task force, chaired by Lloyd’s.

The reinsurer’s analysis of 20 research groups’ predictions points to a busier season than usual.

As new modelling tools emerge, we look at the benchmarks that ILS managers believe are appropriate for long-term stress tests and the shorter-term challenges.

Funding from the UK and Germany will support early action and the managing of disaster risks in less wealthy countries.

As providers manage their targets by premium dollars, and rising rates have boosted quota share income, this is leading to reinsurers hitting capacity earlier than expected.

The platform has backing from ILS firm HSCM, although cyber paper was provided by HDI.

Named storm predictions held stable from the agency’s April update at 17, up from an average of 14.

The ILS vehicle has support from four key providers and will be launched alongside a broader offering including K&R, fine art and other specialty risks.

The agency projects four major hurricanes and anticipates overall activity around a third higher than long-term norms.

Andrew Siffert said the weakness of the Fujita method for rating hurricane speeds was that it was partly based on damage caused.

This week the administration pledged extra money for a programme supporting catastrophe-resilient infrastructure.

The official US forecaster said it did not expect activity to reach last year’s historic peaks.

The monthly tally came in 14% lower than the $632mn reported a year ago.

Severe and winter weather losses in the US hit $21.4bn during January-April, equity research analysts estimate.

The region braces for a potential Category 1 landfall.