There was further evidence at the RIMS conference in San Antonio last week of a transitional market emerging in US casualty insurance, with upwards pressure on rates starting to spread beyond headline hard pockets.
Axis has unveiled a cyber "centre of excellence" aimed at bringing greater clarity and understanding of the exposure and where it is included or excluded across the multiple lines of business the carrier underwrites.
After a harsh winter that has run into early April, anyone living in the Northeast of the US will be familiar with the old adage "one swallow does not a summer make".
Swiss Re Corporate Solutions (SRCS) has launched a standalone excess and surplus lines (E&S) business unit for North America as it looks to expand in the space.
US retail broker Alliant has confirmed it has agreed a deal to buy New York-based Crystal & Co in a move first revealed by The Insurance Insider last Friday.
US commercial property insurance rate increases are already calming as the initial reaction from underwriters to record 2017 cat losses is tempered by the realities of a well-capitalised P&C industry, according to Willis Towers Watson.
Everest Re has said it expects to take $100mn of estimated cat losses in its first quarter results, largely from the California wildfires and related events.
XL Catlin has parted company with excess and surplus lines (E&S) president Stephen Oh as it realigns the business within its broader US insurance organisational structure, The Insurance Insider can reveal.
Those calling a turn in the P&C pricing cycle can usually agree on one thing: it takes more than a heavy cat year on its own to bring a broad upward shift in rates.
AIG has taken a huge 40 percent line on a newly consolidated property cover for retail giant Walmart that rolls its expiring US placement into a global structure, The Insurance Insider can reveal.
US specialty insurer CapSpecialty has unveiled a cloud-based platform that it says vastly streamlines the end-to-end submission and underwriting process for buying excess casualty coverage.
The 56 Florida homeowners' companies that had their ratings affirmed by Demotech late last month fell to a $407mn underwriting loss in the aggregate for 2017, analysis of statutory filings by The Insurance Insider has shown.
High-net-worth specialist Pure is looking to place a new whole-account quota share at 1 June as it consolidates existing covers and adds exposures it previously kept net, The Insurance Insider can reveal.
The claim on the Frenchman’s Reef beach resort in the US Virgin Islands (USVI) has now gone above $300mn as business interruption (BI) losses and escalating rebuild costs push the burden for insurers higher, The Insurance Insider has learned.
White Mountains has taken another step along the acquisition trail with an agreement by a subsidiary to buy a majority stake in program administrator NSM Insurance Group for $368mn in cash.
Demotech has affirmed the A financial stability rating of Florida Specialty after the homeowners’ carrier arranged a loss portfolio transfer and additional reinsurance with Sirius.
Demotech has affirmed the crucial A ratings of all but one of the 16 Florida homeowners carriers that had been waiting for action from the firm since filing their annual financial statements at the start of March.
Imagin. The name may have been designed to conjure up some kind of utopia where swathes of credit risk are offloaded by Freddie Mac to the private market, easing the load on government finances in a housing downturn.
Reinsurers of Access Insurance Company renewed its giant quota share last November just weeks before the non-standard auto insurer's policyholders' surplus collapsed at the end of 2017, The Insurance Insider can reveal.
US specialty insurer IAT has agreed a deal to acquire the renewal rights to a $40mn book of surplus lines excess and umbrella business from State Auto subsidiary, Rockhill.
The initial $40bn-$85bn insured loss estimate put out by AIR Worldwide for Hurricane Maria was a key driver of post-event market dynamics as insurance-linked securities funds reloaded last autumn, according to panelists at the Insider US conference last week.
The new credit risk transfer programme Arch is piloting with Freddie Mac aims to broaden the market rather than cannibalise the business of existing private mortgage insurers, according to Andrew Rippert, CEO of the carrier's global mortgage group.
The (re)insurance industry is well-placed to take advantage of opportunities from growing exposures as a result of climate change, shifting demographics, automation and technological revolution, according to Ascot Reinsurance CEO John Berger.
The wave of largescale takeover deals in the property and casualty sector is motivated by a desire to create “diversified multiple capital platforms”, according to Ryan Specialty CEO Pat Ryan.
Florida homeowners' carrier Anchor Insurance Holdings has bolstered the surplus of its operating subsidiaries, raising at least $17.14mn in the last four months, The Insurance Insider can reveal.
The Texas Windstorm Insurance Association is considering options for a new second season cover as it looks set to cut back its use of traditional reinsurance and catastrophe bonds for its 2018 cat programme.
The recently disbanded Falvey Insurance Group yacht underwriting team has re-emerged to run a newly created facility at Hub International's binding and MGA platform Specialty Program Group (SPG).
Arch Capital Group has confirmed its involvement in a mortgage credit risk transfer programme with Freddie Mac that it says will support market stability through economic cycles.
US MGA platform K2 Insurance Services is looking to grow by close to 50 percent this year through acquisitions and organically, The Insurance Insider can reveal.
US MGA platform K2 Insurance Services is looking to grow by close to 50 percent this year through acquisitions and organically, The Insurance Insider can reveal.
Florida-based Heritage has already secured quotes of flat pricing from underwriters for hundreds of millions of dollars of limit on its 2018 property cat placement, according to chairman and CEO Bruce Lucas.
US MGA platform K2 Insurance Services is looking to grow by close to 50 percent this year through acquisitions and organically, The Insurance Insider can reveal.
Simon Arnott has joined insurance-linked securities manager Securis Investment Partners as head of origination for Bermuda and the US, based in Bermuda, sources told sister title Trading Risk.
Simon Arnott has joined insurance-linked securities manager Securis Investment Partners as head of origination for Bermuda and the US, based in Bermuda, sources told sister title Trading Risk.
US homeowners’ insurer Heritage swung to a $23.2mn fourth quarter operating gain from a $3.6mn deficit in the prior-year period in the first reporting period to include the results of its recently closed Narragansett Bay acquisition.
If last year's NotPetya ransomware attack had been focused on Western economies rather than Eastern Europe it would have "turned the cyber insurance market on its head", according to Sompo International's global cyber product leader Brad Gow.
If last year's NotPetya ransomware attack had been focused on Western economies rather than Eastern Europe it would have "turned the cyber insurance market on its head", according to Sompo International's global cyber product leader Brad Gow.
Expansive program underwriting and distribution platform K2 Insurance Services has bought Rockhill’s general liability and gas and propane distribution lines of business, including its subsidiary Partners General Insurance Agency.
Maiden Holdings’ Bermuda and US operating subsidiaries had their financial strength ratings downgraded to A- from A by AM Best today in response to adverse reserve development on its AmTrust business and deteriorating balance sheet strength.
Reading through The Insurance Insider's coverage of the Florida homeowners' sector these last couple of weeks gives the impression of a fragmented, multi-tier market that once again is at a crossroads.
US wholesaler Keating has secured a partial injunction in a legal battle to restrain a group of ex-employees from pitching their new employer, Worldwide Facilities, to former Keating colleagues and clients.
Commercial insurance rates rose 0.3 percent on average during the fourth quarter for the first gain across all-sized accounts in over three years in the US, The Council of Insurance Agents & Brokers (CIAB) said today in its Q4 2017 survey.
A fragmented Florida homeowners' market means reinsurance buying strategies are likely to diverge between now and 1 June as some cedants move to secure capacity early and others sit tight in the hope of striking a better deal later on.
Demotech is set to rule on ratings for a number of Florida carriers in the coming weeks after they meet a 1 March deadline to file annual financial statements and provide any other information requested by the agency.
Hybrid US fronting carrier Trisura Specialty has put the first deal on its books with an agreement to provide its paper to Allstar Transportation's liability program business, The Insurance Insider can reveal.
Despite hardening pockets in US property, casualty and professional lines, broader rate increases have so far either proved elusive for insurers or come in below their expectations, according to AmWins.
State Auto said its excess and surplus lines (E&S) property team will officially leave the carrier on 2 March and revealed it is closing in on a number of renewal rights transactions as part of its move to exit specialty lines.
Alleghany comfortably beat Wall Street expectations with operating earnings per share of $9.89 for the fourth quarter, as its TransRe and insurance subsidiaries reported improved underwriting returns for the period.
