October 2017/5

Asia Capital Re (ACR)'s board will not reopen the sales process that led to its $1bn abortive deal with Shenzhen Qianhai Financial Holdings and Shenzhen Investment Holdings, The Insurance Insider understands.

The battle lines are being drawn in Asia between reinsurers and cedants ahead of the 1 January renewals, as the sector continues to come to terms with the remarkable string of third quarter cat losses.

French state-owned reinsurer CCR Re is looking for strategic industry partners and would consider exchanging equity stakes with supporters following its operational carve-out early this year from parent CCR

Losses sustained by Caribbean insurer Nagico during hurricanes Irma and Maria have not dented the allure of the business for 50 percent owner Peak Re.

Contrary to the popular mythology that journalists are fuelled by an almost exclusive diet of hard liquor, we scribes actually function on a steady stream of tea and coffee.

As third quarter cat loss disclosures roll in with the earnings season, a discussion is heating up in the market about whether recent events will generate the $100bn industry loss sources had been coalescing around.

The third quarter could still go down as the costliest in the (re)insurance industry's history, with almost all the companies to report so far dragged to a loss and a significant portion of the sector's excess capital wiped out.

A number of Lloyd's syndicates are set to take advantage of propitious pricing conditions next year with significant planned increases in stamp capacity, The Insurance Insider can reveal.

XL Catlin is set to pay a higher coupon for a $150mn top-up to its cat bond cover as it agreed pricing terms on a new Galileo Re insurance-linked securities (ILS) transaction last week, Trading Risk reported.

(Re)insurers within The Insurance Insider's coverage universe have overwhelmingly exceeded expectations in third quarter disclosures to date.

As growing loss ratios continued to pressure underwriting margins, third quarter results so far have revealed that (re)insurers turned to expense management to improve their results, while reduced variable compensation also came to the rescue.

Third quarter results revealed widespread shrinking in reserve releases, with the majority of carriers that have reported so far posting a decline in favourable prior-year development relative to their respective premium bases.