Opinion

ILS managers have pioneered externally managed rated carriers, but have done so with cost-consciousness in mind.

Reinsurers congregating in Bermuda flagged a lack of interest in helping under-capitalised Floridian insurers and under-priced diversifiers, with positive implications for ILS participation.

Fermat’s John Seo divided the potential incoming capital broadly into “fast” and “slow” capital.

Should reinsurers retain the option of playing in ILS, or take a ‘go hard or go home’ approach?

The outcome over the debate on narrowing cat reinsurance coverage will not be an all-or-nothing bet, with all perils deals with exclusions not a polar opposite of named perils coverage.

Several structural factors, including the pricing cycle, make insurers more insulated from US activist states. 

High-yielding alternatives are taking away attention from this sector, with its complex narrative around recent losses, and diversification only goes so far in selling its story.

Announcements and interviews at the UN conference have shed light on the tools emerging to help carriers decarbonise their underwriting portfolios.

Major questions confront the industry after Hurricane Ian, but no matter the answers, certain outcomes are inevitable.

Buyers are more open than ever to different sources of capacity, but the timing of entry will not be on the industry’s terms.

Some are suggesting a rotation of the investor base may be underway, with a move back towards more opportunistic funds.

Ratings agencies suggest that carriers must do better on controlling volatility – but diverging risk appetites give the lie to the idea that the industry is walking away from risk.

As the ILS market heads back to the office after summer breaks to get stuck into a busy conference season, we recap our top summer features and news coverage that you won’t want to miss.

In the absence of a major tactical shift from Demotech, will the reinsurers become the de facto selection party determining which domestics survive?

Market orthodoxy suggests cross-class reinsurers secure more leverage – but are there too many implicit offsets in this game?

Collaboration should help protect against greenwashing fears but the industry should start with leaving behind the issue of the sector’s “inherent ESG” appeal.

With reinsurance availability scarce and costs rising, several carriers have called an interim halt to new homeowners’ business.

The carrier has shared insurance and reinsurance risk with ILS partners in the past, but the ILS team reports to Axis Re CEO Steve Arora.

In certain areas more collaboration is needed but in others the market will continue to get more diverse as investors respond to post-Irma challenges in differing ways.

Even though underlying ILS market conditions are improving, getting a hearing from investors could become harder.

Catastrophe reinsurers are already off to a messy start for the year and may have eroded a significant part of their year-to-date Q1 cat budgets as floods are still unfolding in Australia following recent European/UK windstorms.

Absent more significant reform, any changes this year look set to simply shift the timing of burdens falling on the public purse.

Many investors are in a “hold and assess” pattern on ILS, but some changes in the broader landscape could be more positive for the industry.

Greater participation of cat bond investors in the retro market has some advantages alongside the risks.