Capital markets

Sportscover's loss-making Lloyd's operation is set to be auctioned off by the Nash family after its proposed sale to Flagstone founder Mark Byrne collapsed, The Insurance Insider can reveal.

Allstate halved the top traditional layers of its nationwide catastrophe reinsurance programme for 2014 after placing the $750mn Sanders Re cat bond this year, according to recent disclosures from the insurer.

Four of the top 10 specialist insurance-linked securities (ILS) managers kept their assets under management (AuM) stable in the first half of 2014, but the group of leading capital providers still added $2bn to its circa $38bn combined asset base.

Allstate has purchased a new one-shot "buffer layer" of reinsurance that will sit around its Sanders Re cat bonds after shedding more than $250mn of top-layer limit from its traditional nationwide reinsurance programme for 2014.

A UK High Court judge has told listed Lloyd's carrier Novae that it cannot avoid a facultative retro claim stemming from the 2011 Thai floods.

Insurance-linked securities (ILS) fund manager Stone Ridge Asset Management has signed up for more private quota share vehicles over the past quarter as it has built up a total of $1.8bn of assets under management in reinsurance funds, sister publication Trading Risk reports.

Average risk-adjusted premiums in the insurance-linked securities (ILS) and industry loss warranty (ILW) markets rose in the second quarter of 2014 by 8.8 percent, turning around a 15-month run of falling rates, broker dealer Lane Financial estimated in its latest market report.

A number of reinsurers increased their participation on the traditional reinsurance programme placed by Florida Citizens Property Insurance this year.

With the Q2 reporting season just under way, The Insurance Insider takes a look at what we might expect...

US insurer Assurant took advantage of the soft reinsurance market to buy more cover on a multi-year and multi-event basis for about the same premium as it ceded in 2013.

TigerRisk launch; Wonga in Haste; Generali sale; Lawson named; Ironshore expands; Quindell trading; Capital regulations; ILS funds boost; HgCapital buys; Cypress buyout; Aspen Q2 earnings; Guy Carp appoints; Hiscox unchanged; Losses low; Tower sets date; Storms strike; Helios acquires; Qatar Re hire; Fowl dispute; Swiss Re recruits

The insurance-linked securities (ILS) market needs to look into the "depths of the reinsurance market" for further growth as it may be nearing the limits of its expansion in natural catastrophe business, according to Credit Suisse Asset Management's head of ILS Niklaus Hilti.