Issues

Equities analysts have advised caution on Hiscox's stock despite the carrier's announcement of better-than-expected 2017 profits.

Zenkyoren's Nakama Re 2018-1 cat bond has more than doubled in the course of marketing to reach $700mn, after being marketed with an initial size of $250mn, sister publication Trading Risk has learned.

Floridian carrier Heritage Insurance Holdings expects to claim $104.4mn from several tranches of its Citrus Re cat bond issuances following Hurricane Irma, sister title Trading Risk has learned.

The Bermuda Monetary Authority (BMA) has been criticised for demanding new disclosures from local alternative reinsurance operators without sufficient consultation with involved parties.

Operating returns on equity fell by 4.3 percentage points year on year to 5.4 percent in 2017 for our group of US specialty carriers, as the year's elevated cat losses eroded underwriting margins.

Companies in our US specialty composite mostly posted higher combined ratios in Q4 2017, driven predominantly by increased underlying loss ratios, as well as slowing reserve releases.

Gross written premiums for our group of US specialty insurers increased by 12.6 percent to $6.0bn in the fourth quarter, the strongest quarterly growth rate in the past four years.

One test of a good business is whether it can survive a period of bad management. This maxim was put more colourfully by Berkshire Hathaway chairman and CEO Warren Buffett when he famously said a truly great business could be run by a ham sandwich.

Warren Buffett has it easier than me.

Pricing for directors' and officers' (D&O) insurance is getting firmer, albeit slowly and in distinct areas, while industry executives are heartened that market leaders are walking away from business if they have to.

Spiralling incurred loss ratios from non-appearance risks have put the contingency market under the spotlight, prompting a scaling back in lines being put down and three market exits since last summer.

Underlying results at Bermuda-based (re)insurers worsened in the fourth quarter of 2017, as the group's accident-year ex-cat loss ratio deteriorated year on year.