July 2014/3

Weekly share price data on The Insurance Insider's universe of P&C (re)insurers

It was another tough five days for P&C (re)insurance stocks last week, as The Insider 30 index of share prices retracted by 0.9 percent overall.

The International Association of Insurance Supervisors (IAIS) has launched a public consultation on its proposed basic capital requirements for global systemically important insurers (G-SIIs), despite reservations from the insurance industry.

The US Senate last week (17 July) passed legislation to extend the Terrorism Risk Insurance Act (Tria) by seven years, in a move that has been widely welcomed by the P&C insurance industry.

A number of Tower Group shareholders are suing the firm, its departed CEO Michael Lee and several of its directors and officers for allegedly neglecting their fiduciary duty to investors.

The government of Gibraltar has received confirmation that the UK Treasury will sanction Part VII asset transfers to (re)insurers based on the Rock.

Allstate halved the top traditional layers of its nationwide catastrophe reinsurance programme for 2014 after placing the $750mn Sanders Re cat bond this year, according to recent disclosures from the insurer.

Four of the top 10 specialist insurance-linked securities (ILS) managers kept their assets under management (AuM) stable in the first half of 2014, but the group of leading capital providers still added $2bn to its circa $38bn combined asset base.

Despite coming under pressure from various headwinds, London-listed carriers still look set to deliver a fairly solid performance for the first half of 2014 given the moderate catastrophe losses so far this year, but profits overall will likely be down.

RLI was yet another beneficiary of the buyers' reinsurance market during the second quarter, as the US specialty insurer was able to obtain significant cost savings on its reinsurance spend.

Platinum kicked off the Q2 reporting season last week, with news of continued top-line shrinkage as the Bermudian reinsurer pursued "profitability over market share" amid softening conditions.

Rates have fallen by up to 30 percent in the international construction and P&C insurance markets due to overcapacity, benign losses and cheaper reinsurance over the first half of the year, according to Willis.