September 2013/4

Congressman Bill Cassidy has called a group of ILS experts together to look into whether US flood risk could be transferred to the capital markets via catastrophe bonds

An upswing in interest rates and yields from other asset classes is less likely to affect investor demand for insurance-linked securities (ILS) than continued rate softening, Leadenhall Capital Partners CEO Luca Albertini said.

PCS and the Cayman Islands Stock Exchange are working towards listing industry loss warranty (ILW) products based on the agency's catastrophe loss data, company representatives told Trading Risk at the Monte Carlo Reinsurance Rendez-Vous.

Collateralised reinsurance writer AQR Re will close its London office from 2014, sister publication Trading Risk revealed during last week\'s Monte Carlo Rendez-Vous.

There was no threatening storm in the Atlantic and the agenda was set well before the mid-year US cat renewals, but that did not prevent the 2013 Monte Carlo Rendez-Vous from being a little livelier than it has been in recent years.

A mere five years after the collapse of Lehman Brothers and the effective closure of the capital markets, P&C reinsurers are being repeatedly warned to either adapt to the alternative capital influx or face becoming irrelevant

Competition in the energy reinsurance market remains tough, according to the monthly Willis Energy Market Review newsletter.

Property cat remains the single most testing tail risk for (re)insurers despite the emergence of new exposures such as cyber liability, according to General Re CEO Tad Montross.

Aon Benfield has fought off competition from Guy Carpenter and Willis Re to hold onto prize catastrophe reinsurance account Suncorp, The Insurance Insider revealed last week.

Liberty Mutual has brought part of its catastrophe reinsurance programme to the market early, in the latest example of a cedant attempting to lock in softening cat rates.

AmTrust Financial continues to divide opinion among the analyst community, with JMP Securities' Matt Carletti defending the firm after recent concerns from bears and short sellers.

Willis Re has reshuffled the senior management at its Global Specialty business in a move aimed at growing the division under new recruit Graeme Moore.