Rates

The managers of start-up ILS fund Lutece Re said they had raised a "significant amount" of committed capital to begin underwriting at the 1 January renewals

Rates for remote cat bond layers have only increased slightly following losses from Harvey, Irma and Maria and the Mexican earthquakes, GC Securities told Trading Risk.

Losses to insurance-linked securities (ILS) managers overseeing collateralised reinsurance strategies ranged from 10 to 20 percent in September following the recent hurricanes.

A rating correction is widely expected in 2018 after reinsurers said they would push for increases in response to catastrophe losses that have highlighted their softer margins

US homeowners' insurance premiums are forecast to expand by 2 percent to $93bn in 2017, but underlying returns on equity (RoEs) from the business are still deteriorating, according to Aon Benfield

US property insurers are pushing for base case rate increases of 10-20 percent on catastrophe-exposed business, even for loss-free accounts, according to a client advisory from broker Lockton

Cat bond rates have only increased slightly for remote risk layers following the third quarter losses from hurricanes Harvey, Irma and Maria and the Mexican earthquakes, GC Securities estimated

At this point there are a lot of questions being asked in the reinsurance markets and few definitive answers available. As it is a journalist's privilege to ask questions, let's go through some on the list

The 2017 catastrophe events have highlighted the extent to which ILS managers are benefiting from industry loss warranty (ILW) hedging, but market sources have questioned where the losses will ultimately fall as more clarity is gained over HIM claims in months to come

Expectation for substantial price increases following the recent catastrophes may be overly optimistic, in part due to an influx of alternative capital into the industry, according to analysts on an S&P panel at the Bermuda Reinsurance Conference.

Reinsurance pricing seems to rely on a certain amount of collective signalling in as much as it does number-crunching - as underwriters gauge how far they can push rates without losing business, by looking for fear in the eyes of their opposition

Munich Re's reinsurance combined ratio spiked up to 160.9 percent in the third quarter after it took EUR3.2bn of pre-reported major claims