October 2011/4

If imitation is the sincerest form of flattery, then hedge fund wunderkind David Eirnhorn should be thrilled by the reinsurance tributes paid to Greenlight Re.

With property cat underwriters typically predicting modest rate increases at the 1 January renewals, hedge funds appear increasingly keen to support new reinsurance initiatives that are set begin underwriting in 2012, The Insurance Insider can reveal.

The scale of this year's tornado and thunderstorm season in the US has caused reinsurers to look carefully at their participation on cat programmes for insurers that have been disproportionately hit by losses.

A record year for US tornado and thunderstorm losses has brought aggregate covers back into focus for insurers and their reinsurers ahead of the PCI conference in New Orleans this week

An expansive MGU strategy sits at the core of Pat Ryan's vision to "close the loop" on distribution, as he continues to build the Ryan Specialty Group (RSG) platform he launched last year.

Ryan Specialty Group (RSG) is continuing to build its US managing general underwriter (MGU) platform with new facilities providing an initial $125mn of capacity to write property construction and cat perils, The Insurance Insider can reveal.

The flooding in Thailand now looks as if it will be the second-largest Asian (re)insurance loss of 2011 with industry figures privately speculating that the eventual total will many times higher than the current official estimate.

A quiet Atlantic hurricane season will not spare US-listed (re)insurers from reporting cat losses in Q3, as loss creep on the New Zealand and Japanese earthquakes combines with losses from Hurricane Irene and the Danish floods.

Commercial P&C pricing for US risks is now higher on average than it was a year ago, the first time since 2003 that rates have risen year-on-year.

Despite reporting cat-affected earnings well down on the prior-year period, Chubb and Travelers both reported encouraging rate rises on their US commercial insurance books of business last week.

Deteriorating conditions in the municipal bond market could leave the Florida Hurricane Catastrophe Fund (FHCF) with a 12-month funding shortfall of $3.219bn should an event go through the top of its coverage.

Flagstone Re founder Mark Byrne is in prime position to consummate his deal for taking a minority position in listed Lloyd's (re)insurer Omega after dominant shareholder Neil Woodford of Invesco Perpetual gave his blessing to the Flagstone Re founder's stake-building.