November 2005/1

After downgrade and developing hurricane losses, investors await strategic plan... Post-9/11 start-up Montpelier Re has pleaded for patience from investors as it formulates a strategic plan to recover from heavily deteriorating hurricane losses that...

AM Best downgrade for once revered reinsurer... Rating agency AM Best downgraded the insurer financial strength ratings of troubled Bermudian RenaissanceRe from A+ to A just two days after the reinsurer revealed CEO and chairman James Stanard had...

In our regular monthly International News Digest, we round up key stories from the last month, presenting them to you in easily digestable snippets.

Following Katrina, the received wisdom was that there would be few, if any, Bermudian start-ups. But as the magnitude of the three storm losses begins to sink in (AXIS’s John Charman raised the prospect of up to $80bn of losses in 2005 which, if you...

In our regular monthly London News Digest, we round up key stories from the last month, presenting them to you in easily digestable snippets.

Like their Bermudian based counter-parts, Lloyd’s quoted insurers are rushing to raise funds from the capital markets to take advantage of the expected uplift in rates that has followed the estimated $60bn-$80bn of storm losses this hurricane season.

Existing reinsurers are creating innovative “side-car” companies with hedge fund capital eager for exposure to the reinsurance sector. At a time when rating agencies are scrutinising companies’ exposures to property catastrophe and retrocessional...