“Demand for catastrophe bonds outpacing industry’s ability to meet them” – Aon

Aon’s latest Reinsurance Market Dynamics: June and July Reinsurance Renewals says that the current demand for catastrophe bonds is outpacing the ability of the industry to supply them. According to the report, the current situation has arisen because insurers and reinsurers have turned increasingly to alternative capital markets to supplement traditional reinsurance and maximise placements in a […]

Diversification pays off for some catastrophe bond funds

Some catastrophe bond funds have been able to moderate the impacts of broadly widening spreads through their diversification in recent weeks, with diversifying perils and regions experiencing less significant widening on outstanding cat bonds, so delivering better returns in May and June. We’ve been documenting the spread widening seen across the catastrophe bond market in […]

UCITS catastrophe bond funds see sluggish growth through H1

The assets under management (AUM) of the main UCITS catastrophe bond funds as a group only rose by 1.2% through the first-half of 2022, which goes some way to explain the restricted capacity of recent months. Having expanded rapidly from AUM of just under $5 billion at the end of April 2020, to more than $8 […]

Gallagher Re – Africa Re initiative may bring third-party capital to African risks

A new collaborative initiative between global reinsurance broker Gallagher Re and pan-African reinsurer Africa Re aims to strengthen countries against a broad range of climate, crisis and disaster risks and may utilise third-party reinsurance capital alongside traditional to augment capacity. The pair announced their protection gap focused initiative named ‘Accelerating action through scalable risk transfer […]

Philippines looks to reinsurance & parametrics for crop scheme

The government of the Philippines is said to be looking at sources of reinsurance capital to underpin the Philippine Crop Insurance Corporation (PCIC) scheme, while parametric triggers are also being explored to make the coverage more widely available and responsive. Artemis understands that there is a desire to make the Philippine Crop Insurance Corporation (PCIC) […]

Catastrophe bond market hits new record size of $38.2bn

The global market for catastrophe bonds expanded by almost 2% during the second-quarter of 2022, as demand from sponsors drove strong issuance and helped to grow the outstanding cat bond market to $38.2 billion at June 30th 2022. Issuance of new catastrophe bonds reached $5.2 billion in the second-quarter of the year. You can download […]

Flooding returns to eastern Australia, with Sydney affected

Parts of eastern Australia are flooding again after an East coast low brought torrential rains and strong winds, with parts of Sydney particularly affected, with households evacuated and flood warnings in place. Meteorologists from Australia’s Bureau of Meteorology are warning that river levels could continue to rise into the beginning of the coming week, potentially […]

Swiss ILS fund managers collaborating on ESG transparency

Artemis has learned that a group of Switzerland-based insurance-linked securities (ILS) investment fund managers have been collaborating to develop a data transparency proposal to help enhance environmental, social and governance (ESG) in the ILS market. After what we understand to be a few months of work, an initial ESG data request file template has now […]

Cat bond issuance strong in first half: Moody’s

Catastrophe bond issuance remained buoyant in the first half of this year, with $7.7 billion in new issuance following a record year in 2021, according to a report released Friday by Moody’s Investors Service Inc. Activity is expected to be robust for the remainder of 2022, Moody’s said. First-quarter new issuance totaled $3.2 billion, the […]

Expanding hurricane insurance coverage for individuals in the Caribbean

Parametric policies designed for lower-income consumers could help bridge the disaster insurance gap. Globally, uninsured damages from disasters add up to over US$160bn per year, with 96% of this protection gap affecting emerging economies. Parametric disaster insurance can help by offering protection to many of those who are most vulnerable to natural hazards. The Yokahu insurance company […]