Rates

Florida Citizens' latest issuance expands by a quarter during marketing.

Florida's state-backed insurer is set to buy $1.42bn reinsurance for the 2018 season.

The reinsurer also benefited from low loss experience as first quarter net income rose 7.5 percent.

Despite the decrease, pricing is still up on last year for Nationwide Mutual's cat bond.

Early signs indicate third-party capital is being deployed aggressively in the Florida market.

Nationwide Mutual has launched a new Caelus Re cat bond, which will help to replace ILS cover that is expected to be drawn down by nearly $150mn following last year’s catastrophe activity.

The target size of Aspen Bermuda's Kendall Re 2018-1 cat bond has increased by 50 percent to $225mn

The property direct and facultative market achieved rate increases of 20-30 percent on loss-hit US business at the April renewal, but underwriters were still nonetheless disappointed.

Reinsurers were pushed back in their attempts to increase US property rates at the April renewal, with loss-free cedants even demanding slight decreases, Willis Re said in its 1st View report.

Cat bond volumes rose to $3.48bn in the first quarter, as diversifying non-US deals bolstered issuance.

Several Florida cat bonds among new second quarter ILS transactions have set tight pricing precedents that will undoubtedly be used by insurers to try to keep a lid on rate movements in the upcoming mid-year renewals.

UPC's Armor Re II cat bond has priced 17.7 percent below the midpoint of the initial spread guidance at 350 basis points (bps).