March 2013/1

A dearth of commercial bank lending to mid-sized companies in the US is creating an opportunity for insurers to invest in an asset class that typically offers yields at the high end of the corporate credit spectrum

A quartet of homeowners' insurers helped Louisiana Citizens reduce its share of the state homeowners' market from 4.1 percent at end-2011, when it had around $21.7bn of total insured value on its books, to 3.8 percent at end-2012

With firm order terms due in the market at time of going to press, Mississippi's insurer of last resort will be seen by some as a bellwether for other residual carriers due to renew cat programmes in the lead up to the 2013 hurricane season

While Florida grabs the limelight in the build-up to the 2013 Atlantic hurricane season, it is also a key time for reinsurers participating in other wind-exposed states where there is interplay between public and private markets

(Re)insurers in our Bermudian composite (ex-White Mountains and Maiden) returned around two thirds of their net income through share repurchases in 2012, according to data compiled by The Insurance Insider

While composite and multinational insurers spook investors with dividend cuts, the specialty/reinsurance stocks keep the faith...

Quoted (re)insurers in our Bermuda universe grew their non-life net written premium (NWP) by 5 percent during 2012 to take the total to $51bn, according to data compiled by The Insurance Insider...

London market (re)insurance carriers delivered a stronger underwriting performance than their peers and rivals in Bermuda in 2012, according to analysis by The Insurance Insider

Despite the absence of cats (with apologies to Sandy, of course), many (re)insurers had to rely on prior-year reserves to eke out an underwriting profit

Zurich Insurance Group is restructuring its catastrophe reinsurance cover as it looks poised to become the latest cedant to bulk up its global cover after narrowing its specific European and US programmes

The renewal of Chubb's US cat programme poses a challenge for quoting reinsurers as they look to balance their desire for post-event payback with the need to make such protection economic for the cedant

Market sources have described the presence of Berkshire Hathaway's reinsurance doyen Ajit Jain in Tokyo ahead of the 1 April catastrophe renewals as ominous