October 2017/4

The onslaught of catastrophes in the third quarter could serve as a springboard for commercial rate hikes in the US, if commentary by early reporter and industry bellwether Travelers is anything to go by.

The stars finally seem to be aligning for the legacy market, which has spent years waiting patiently for the anticipated wave of liabilities to arrive.

Three proceed to second round of Sovag run-off sale

Investors in both reinsurers and in insurance-linked securities (ILS) are looking for rate rises at the 1 January renewals and failing to meet those expectations could dull their interest in the sector.

Make no mistake about it, at times like these, the modelling and ratings agencies are the de facto regulators of the marketplace.

Cat bond market prices had been written down by 5.3 percent by mid-October after hurricanes Harvey, Irma and Maria, as multiple insurance-linked securities (ILS) transactions were expected to respond to the disasters

While most industry participants agree that a significant portion of insurance-linked securities (ILS) capital supporting retro and collateralised reinsurance will reload at 1.1, the extent of the "re-up" and the return it will require continues to be debated.

Brokers and reinsurers fought for position at the PCI annual meeting in Chicago last week ahead of a 1 January renewal that looks increasingly difficult to call.

Rate softening in the European reinsurance market will come to an end in January as the insurance sector responds to a $100bn third quarter cat bill.

A look-up table of all the Q3 loss announcements so far by company

Look-up tables of all the Q3 loss announcements so far by event

Swiss reinsurers posted an overall underwriting loss in 2016 as their collective non-life combined ratio increased by 10 percentage points year-on-year to 106 percent, data from the Swiss Financial Market Supervisory Authority (Finma) shows