September 2016/1

Homeowners' carrier United Insurance Holdings (UIH) and American Coastal have joined forces to create the third largest player in the Florida residential property market

The varied, international nature of second quarter catastrophe events has made reinsurer sidecars the most likely source of losses for the ILS market, as the vehicles help to keep the earnings hit for carriers to a manageable level.

Second quarter catastrophe losses had a patchy impact on reinsurers' fee income from managed capital.

Weather risk has come back into the ILS spotlight with the launch of a Market Re private cat bond that uses a parametric trigger to cover a warm European winter event.

AP3 shrinks ILS; ILS Advisers gain; Cat bond loss payments; Philippines cat scheme; Italian quake losses; Zurich longevity deal; CPPIB eyes Ascot; AP2 returns; Louisiana floods

US thunderstorms produced the highest catastrophe losses for insurers in the first half of 2016, according to Swiss Re's Sigma unit.

Reinsurance profits could drop below carriers' cost of capital as ongoing soft market conditions and stagnant investment yields affect results, according to rating agency Standard & Poor's (S&P).

The cat bond market will expand further beyond property catastrophe after taking on new perils in the past year, according to participants in sister title The Insurance Insider's "virtual roundtable" before the Monte Carlo Reinsurance Rendez-Vous.

Hudson Structured settles brand dispute; Future Fund expands ILS brief; Stone Ridge consolidates

Vario Partners has brought in a large Middle Eastern reinsurer as a minority shareholder as it prepares to launch its first fund to invest in whole-account insurance securities, the company told Trading Risk.

Gator Re prices have regained further ground as the bond approaches maturity without covered losses notably rising.

Cat bond yields continued to fall in late summer, as half of the hurricane season elapsed without a US storm threat.

Tropical storm Hermine was expected to cross the Florida coast on 2 September as a Category 1 hurricane as Trading Risk went to press. It is the first storm to threaten the state since 2005.

An $8.9mn cat bond lite completed in late August on Artex's issuance platform has taken total cat bond lite volumes for the year to $203mn, according to Trading Risk records.

Allianz Risk Transfer's latest Market Re private cat bond has fallen behind schedule as the company looks to raise weather reinsurance from the ILS market for the first time since 1999, Trading Risk understands.

Axa Liabilities Managers is planning to launch a second series of its legacy fund after fully deploying its first such vehicle, sources told Trading Risk.

The grand Monte Carlo casino is one of a number of entertainment options open to the horde of reinsurance executives about to descend upon Monaco for the annual Rendez-Vous.

A significant chunk of the outstanding cat bond market will mature ahead of the next hurricane season, which could put further pressure on spreads after the sector shrank by $2bn in the first half of 2016.

Twelve Capital is looking to bring in new backing as one of its original stakeholders wants to find an exit, Trading Risk understands.

Samir Shah, the former head of capital markets at AIG, has joined start-up firm Ledger Investing.

Former Montpelier Re president Chris Schaper has been appointed CEO of Schinnerer Group, a managing general agent (MGA) business that is part of Marsh.

Hermine made landfall as a category one hurricane in northwest Florida early Friday, becoming the first hurricane to hit the state in 11 years, but data shows that the insurance industry's exposure in the landfall region is relatively low.