Latest Reinsurance Headlines

All the headlines from our Reinsurance Topic Page, ordered by recency.

Florida Cat Fund Foregoes Private Reinsurance for 2020 Hurricane Season

Jun 15 2020 // Reinsurance coverage for the Florida Hurricane Catastrophe Fund was not purchased for this year’s hurricane season after overseers of the fund evaluated the market and found a lack of private capital availability.In...

Topa Insurance in California Names Chang Vice President

Jun 12 2020 // Topa Insurance Co. in Calabasas, Calif., has named Olive Chang vice president of reinsurance. Chang has oversight of reinsurance placements for all Topa Insurance Group entities. She is also responsible for strategic...

Global Re Forum Taps PartnerRe’s Clarke as Chair, Hannover Re’s Henchoz as Vice Chair

Jun 8 2020 // The Global Reinsurance Forum (GRF) has appointed Emmanuel Clarke, president and CEO of PartnerRe for a two-year term. He succeeds Kevin J. O’Donnell, CEO of RenaissanceRe, who became chairman in 2018.Jean-Jacques...

Zaffino, AIG’s No. 2, Fights to Turn Around the House That Hank Greenberg Built

Jun 5 2020 // American International Group Inc.’s Peter Zaffino drew a clear line ahead of his jump to the insurer almost three years ago.“I didn’t want any advice,” Zaffino, AIG’s president, said in a rare...

Diverging Views: Is COVID a One-Off Catastrophe or Not?

Jun 5 2020 // While reinsurers are “open for business” and insurers and reinsurers are reporting the impacts of COVID-19 as a one-off catastrophe impacting earnings rather than capital, equity markets are viewing the...

UK Government Forms £10 Billion Reinsurance Backstop for Trade Credit Insurers

Jun 4 2020 // The UK government has created a £10 billion (US$12.5 billion) reinsurance scheme designed to help businesses during the COVID-19 pandemic by guaranteeing transactions insured by trade credit insurers.The Trade Credit...

How Florida’s Strained Insurance Market is Facing COVID-19, Hurricane Season

Jun 3 2020 // From the threat of insurer ratings downgrades to mounting carrier losses because of excessive litigation to increasing insurance rates, Florida’s insurance market got off to a rocky start in 2020. Then came the...

How COVID-19 Court Lockdowns May Turn the Social Inflation Tide

Jun 2 2020 // Defense attorney Ellen Greiper reported receiving more than the usual number of phone calls from plaintiffs attorneys earlier this month, suggesting that the call dynamics could be signaling a COVID-driven change in social...

Florida Cat Fund Foregoes Private Reinsurance for 2020 Hurricane Season

Jun 2 2020 // Reinsurance coverage for the Florida Hurricane Catastrophe Fund will not be purchased for the upcoming hurricane season after overseers of the fund evaluated the market and found a lack of private capital availability.In a...

Pandemic Reinsurance Solution Gains Wide Support from UK Re/Insurance Industry

Jun 1 2020 // UK insurance executives have taken another step toward developing a public-private risk-financing mechanism for future pandemics with the creation of work streams to take the idea from the drawing board to an operating...

K2 Insurance Services Launches International Re/insurance Platform in London

Jun 1 2020 // K2 Insurance Services, the underwriting and distribution specialist in the U.S. program insurance market, announced the launch of K2 International, a specialty insurance and reinsurance underwriting platform, based in...

Pandemic-Hit Re/insurers Expect a Costly Hurricane Season – and Rates Are Rising

Jun 1 2020 // The official start of the Atlantic hurricane season on Monday could signal more steep losses for insurers and reinsurers, already battered by the impact of the coronavirus pandemic on their underwriting and investment...

S&P Affirms Munich Re’s ‘AA-‘ Ratings, Reflecting Sufficient Capital for COVID-19 Crisis

May 29 2020 // S&P Global Ratings has affirmed its “AA-” long-term issuer credit and financial strength ratings for Munich Re and its subsidiaries, with a stable outlook.The stable outlook reflects S&P’s view...

Reinsurers Will Fail to Earn Cost of Capital in 2020, Leading to More Rate Hikes: Fitch

May 27 2020 // Global reinsurers will fail to earn its cost of capital in 2020 amid the coronavirus crisis, which will help maintain price increases for the sector during the year ahead, said Fitch Ratings.Financial performance will be...

Lawmaker Details Federal Reinsurance for Pandemic Business Interruption, Event Losses

May 27 2020 // New York Congresswoman Carolyn Maloney has introduced the Pandemic Risk Insurance Act of 2020, a federal backstop for pandemic-related business interruption insurance modeled after the Terrorism Risk Insurance...

Brazil Reinsurer IRB Eyes Purchase of Foreign Competitors’ Portfolios: Sources

May 22 2020 // Brazilian reinsurer IRB Brasil Resseguros SA is in advanced negotiations to buy rivals’ portfolios in Brazil and elsewhere in Latin America as foreign competitors scale back in the region, two sources close to the...

Activist Shareholder Urges Watford Holdings to Sell Itself, or Be Put Into Runoff

May 20 2020 // Capital Returns Management LLC, the fifth largest shareholder of Watford Holdings Ltd., is urging the re/insurer to sell itself or be put into runoff.In a letter to Watford’s board of directors, the activist...

BMS Names Former Everest CEO Addesso as Non-Exec Chair of U.S. Reinsurance Arm

May 20 2020 // BMS Group, the London-based specialist re/insurance broker, announced the appointments of Dominic Addesso as non-executive chairman and LoriAnn Lowery-Biggers as an independent non-executive director of BMS Intermediaries...

For Third Point Re, COVID-19 Crisis Hurts, but It Celebrates 1st Underwriting Profit

May 20 2020 // Third Point Re reported a net loss of $183.6 million for the first quarter of 2020 due to COVID-19-related investment volatility – but the company still had big reasons to celebrate. For the first time since its...

P/C Insurers Back a Federal Pandemic Loss Fund But Not a Backstop Like TRIA

May 19 2020 // Property/casualty insurance carrier groups are developing a proposal for a federal program to replace revenues lost by businesses shut down during pandemics like COVID-19, but their program won’t be modeled after the...