June 2016/1

Forecasters agreed the Atlantic is set to experience near-normal storm activity in the coming months, but are still undecided on whether El Niño or La Niña conditions will be the season's key driver.

Florida insurer Universal added $100mn of new multi-year limit to its reinsurance programme for 2016, after placing roughly $200mn of multi-year cover last year for the first time.

Florida Citizens Property Insurance is still planning a major restructure of its reinsurance arrangements in 2017, after notably shrinking its programme this year.

United expands cover; Pine River's ILS strategy unaffected by fund closure; China insurance exchange imminent; Florida Specialty buys Mount Beacon; Heritage ups cession rate for 2016/17 programme; Twia secures ‘second-season' cover

Hudson Structured Capital Management's new reinsurance and transport finance funds are up and running after securing a $250mn allocation from Blackstone, Trading Risk understands.

The World Bank has launched the Pandemic Emergency Financing Facility (PEF), which plans to raise up to $500mn of insurance cover to respond to infectious diseases.

Take up of leveraging facilities for ILS investors continues to be limited, as higher Libor rates have made borrowing more expensive at a time when cat bond spreads are low, sources said

IAG said that it would take net claims of between A$60mn and A$80mn ($45mn-$60mn) from storms that hit Australia's east coast this month

May catastrophe events, including the Canadian wildfires and US and European storms, are expected to cost (re)insurers at least $7bn, Impact Forecasting said in its monthly cat report

Oppenheimer's Master Event-Linked Bond Fund reported an 0.79 percent gain over the six months to 31 March 2016, as its performance was impacted by the partial loss on the MultiCat Mexico cat bond

A $6mn investment in the Bellemeade Re mortgage insurance securitisation was the only ILS instrument held by the Blackstone Alternative Investment Funds as at 31 March 2016, according to annual report filings

Nephila Capital reopened its funds to accept a limited amount of capital this year after closing its doors for more than two years, according to co-founder and managing partner Greg Hagood

Institutional investors would welcome new sources of insurance risk to help them build better portfolios, according to Todor Todorov, investment consultant, hedge funds research at Willis Towers Watson

There continued to be more buyers than sellers on the secondary cat bond market in June, which kept prices relatively firm

A downturn in industry loss warranty (ILW) pricing has limited cat bond lite issuance activity in 2016, with a couple of recent deals breaking the dearth of activity

The second quarter marked a return to significant spread softening on new cat bond issuances for the first time since early 2014, as investor demand continued to outweigh new supply arriving on the market

Swiss Re has around $395mn of retro support from its Sector Re sidecar after the vehicle completed its main fundraising before the mid-year renewals, Trading Risk understands

Allianz Risk Transfer lifted the target on its Blue Halo Re cat bond to $185mn from $150mn, as pricing on the high-risk transaction moved toward the upper end of forecasts, Trading Risk understands

Getting "closer to risk" is one of the talking points in the reinsurance market at the moment

The $200mn Gator Re cat bond is almost 70 percent of the way to reaching its $175mn trigger point, partway through its final annual risk period, sources told Trading Risk

Nephila Capital pared back the level of capacity it deployed in the Florida reinsurance market this year, helping to limit rate reductions after several years of significant declines

Floridian carrier United Insurance Holdings expanded its reinsurance limit by about 20 percent year-on-year to obtain $1.42bn of first-event cover at the 1 June renewals