January 2014/4

The ILS market broadened its investor base and the scope of cover it was willing to offer sponsors in 2013, Swiss Re Capital Markets acknowledged in its annual review of the burgeoning sector.

London-listed (re)insurer Lancashire has established one of the industry's largest market-facing reinsurer sidecars after deploying more than $250mn of limit through its Kinesis Re I vehicle during the January renewals.

Insured losses of C$200mn from the December ice storm have pushed the 2013 loss tally for Canadian natural catastrophes up to a record-breaking C$3.2bn, according to data from PCS Canada quoted by the Insurance Bureau of Canada

On the eve of the full-year 2013 reporting season, Keefe, Bruyette & Woods (KBW) analyst Christopher Hitchings last week raised his 2013 profit before tax (PBT) forecasts for Lloyd's carriers by an average of 7 percent.

UK car insurance prices rose 1.4 percent during the final three months of 2013, according to a new premium tracker launched on 27 January by the Association of British Insurers (ABI).

A rare contradiction between the two main UK car insurance price surveys that unsettled insurance stocks last week reflects differences in the data they are based on, and could stimulate interest in a new barometer of motor premiums launched this week by the Association of British Insurers

Amid the possible ratings movements in 2014, one of the most keenly anticipated is a possible upgrade of Lloyd's FSR by ratings agencies AM Best and S&P, as both firms hold the Corporation's ratings on a positive outlook.

Ratings agencies AM Best and Standard & Poor's (S&P) made relatively few changes to their assessments of major (re)insurers in 2013 amid mild catastrophe losses, solid earnings and macroeconomic recovery.

Shares in US insurance giant Travelers traded down heavily last week as evidence of slowing momentum on pricing overshadowed a strong earnings beat for the fourth quarter.

Melanie Alexander, the chief operating officer and co-founder of US broker Brown & Brown's London-based subsidiary, Decus Insurance Brokers, has become the second senior executive to quit the firm in less than three months

Phil Hernon, the managing director of Enstar-owned broker Kinsale, is to leave the group with immediate effect, The Insurance Insider can reveal.

Despite having already decreased its spending on facultative reinsurance over the past two years, FM Global is looking to further shrink its fac purchasing ahead of 2015, sister publication Inside FAC reported.