Markel

The firm has deployed just under half its remaining asset base in its 2019 portfolio, with significant sums locked up in side pockets at year end.

After listening to the Markel earnings call, I feel prompted to again ask the question: is this the end for Markel Catco?

Loss-reserve bolstering pushes the Reinsurance Opportunities fund deeper into the red for 2017.

The ILS unit is under regulatory scrutiny and saw the abrupt departure of two executives last month.

The insurer will benefit from reduced incentive expenses owed to former executives in the Bermudian firm.

The insurer also disclosed that it wrote off goodwill and intangible assets for Markel Catco.

The Russians have a governance problem.

The London Stock Exchanged-listed Catco Reinsurance Opportunities pledges to "keep investment management arrangements under review".

Arguably the defining feature of the last seven years of the reinsurance market has been the inexorable increase in the amount of ILS capital in the system, from roughly $40bn in 2012 to $90bn in H1 2018.

The complaint on behalf of Markel investors follows the disclosure of regulatory probes into the accounting of loss reserves.

Reduced ILS capacity is impacting the sidecar and retro market in particular.

ILS showed reinsurers the New World, but reinsurers have now learned to live in it.