December 2013/3

The benign catastrophe climate in 2013 has helped mask underlying margin pressure on Bermudian (re)insurers, according to Keefe, Bruyette & Woods (KBW) analyst Meyer Shields.

Industry-wide insured losses stemming from Windstorm Xaver could reach EUR1.4bn, catastrophe modelling firm AIR Worldwide warned last week (12 December).

The 2013 Atlantic hurricane season was the least active in over 20 years with the lowest number of hurricanes since 1982, Willis Re estimated in a report published last week.

The (re)insurance broker space has been a hive of M&A activity during 2013, characterised by mounting private equity (PE) interest, particularly in North America, and continued industry consolidation.

After years of struggling to keep afloat and engaging in a largely successful battle to positively change the market's perception of the company, London-listed carrier Novae finds itself confronted by a strategic dilemma about its future direction.

Falling prices on excess layers more than offsets hardening primary business

QBE is on course for one of the worst stock market performances of any major international insurer in 2013 after a shock profit warning from the group earlier this month wiped out all of its share price gains for the year.

IAG has announced the A$1.8bn acquisition of Wesfarmers' Australian and New Zealand insurance underwriting operations.

Q360, the insurance broking arm of troubled run-off acquirer and insurance services group Tawa, is facing an uncertain future due to the impending departure of founding partner and head of broking Graham Kilby, The Insurance Insider can reveal.

Shares in UK general insurer RSA have fallen to a level where they may be worth buying again, some analysts said on 16 December, amid mounting speculation that the embattled carrier will put itself up for sale or try to repair its tattered balance sheet through large-scale disposals.

AmTrust Financial Services is set to hold a conference call this evening (16 December) to comment on its turbulent share price performance last week and to provide an update on the outlook for year-end 2013 and 2014.

The generous ceding commission given to XL on its professional lines reinsurance quota share has prompted memories of some of the most extreme soft markets in living memory.