ILS margin expansion & growth opportunities in a firming reinsurance market
One of the themes coming out of this results season, as re/insurers announce their fourth-quarter and full-year 2021 earnings, is a growing confidence in the ability to expand margins and secure further growth, in a firming reinsurance marketplace. Analysts are becoming increasingly positive with each report they publish and importantly the majority expect underlying margins […]
Catastrophe bond rates turn neutral to close 2021: Lane Financial
Having forecast that the catastrophe bond market could turn neutral towards the end of 2021 earlier this year, the latest data from Lane Financial shows that rate trajectory did pull-back in the final quarter of the year, with the year ending in relatively muted fashion. What was a hard market in catastrophe bonds and insurance-linked […]
Recent catastrophes open value in insurance-linked strategies: Neuberger Berman
Senior executives at investment specialist Neuberger Berman have highlighted insurance-linked securities (ILS) as an alternative asset class that should be particularly attractive to investors at this time. In an annual update to help guide clients investment decisions into 2022, Neuberger Berman’s top leadership team discussed the trends that are driving investors to alternative asset classes […]
Swiss Re grows ILS AuM to $3.2bn, expands PGGM & Sector sidecars: Interview
Swiss Re continued to expand its alternative reinsurance capital assets under management across the range of insurance-linked securities (ILS) structures it manages for 2022, with notable successes in growing sidecar commitments for its PGGM-backed vehicle and its multi-investor Sector Re sidecar. Artemis spoke with Judy Klugman, Global Head of ILS Sales (based in New York), […]
Cat bond issuance hits record $12.5 billion
Catastrophe bond issuance reached a record of $12.5 billion in 2021, according to Aon. Up from the previous highest total of $11bn in 2020, the new issuance brings the value of active bonds in the market to $32bn. Aon’s investment banking arm Aon Securities participated in $7bn of last year’s issuance. The catastrophe bond sector […]
Catastrophe bonds increase in importance again: Fitch
Catastrophe bonds increased in importance for the global reinsurance industry again in 2021, Fitch Ratings has said, as the record levels of issuance seen helped to make cat bonds an even larger pool of risk capital supporting reinsurer businesses. Momentum in the catastrophe bond market continues to increase, Fitch said in a recent report, highlighting […]
ILS fund return potential rising with reinsurance rates: Frontier Advisors
The forward-looking return potential of many insurance-linked securities (ILS) fund portfolios continued to rise over the last year and it’s likely this has accelerated through January 2022, as price rises in reinsurance and retrocession boost no-loss and expected return metrics. Recent analysis undertaken by Frontier Advisors, an Australian independent investment consultant with an insurance-linked securities […]
Private ILS allow investors to harvest illiquidity premia: Ahmad, Schroders
For investors looking at insurance-linked securities (ILS), in order to gain the full diversifying benefits of an allocation to the asset class, it is important to look to the private ILS and collateralised reinsurance segment as well as catastrophe bonds, Zeba Ahmad, Alternatives Director at Schroders has said. While catastrophe bonds provide a clear way […]
Cat bonds outperform many private ILS portfolios: Frontier Advisors
Insurance-linked securities (ILS) portfolios with predominantly catastrophe bond holdings have on average outperformed many mid- and higher-risk ILS fund strategies that contain private ILS transactions over recent years, according to analysis from Frontier Advisors. Catastrophe bonds typically provide reinsurance or retrocessional protection higher up in the risk tower, so are more risk-remote and so the […]
UCITS catastrophe bond fund assets grew 28% in 2021
The main UCITS catastrophe bond funds as a group lifted their assets under management (AUM) significantly during 2021, to a new high of just over US $8.64 billion, representing 28% growth in AuM year-on-year. We’ve tracked the growth of the UCITS catastrophe bond fund market and launched a new page featuring charts detailing this growth […]