With the recent California wildfires seen as likely to drive the second most costly first-quarter on record for the global insurance and reinsurance industry, AIG CEO Peter Zaffino has warned that a $200 billion annual catastrophe loss year in 2025 could “recalibrate the entire industry.”Zaffino highlighted that, “Much more of the risk is now being … Read more
The California Earthquake Authority (CEA) has returned to the catastrophe bond market to sponsor its first issuance since late 2023, seeking $200 million or more in multi-year collateralized California earthquake reinsurance protection from the capital markets through this Ursa Re Ltd. (Series 2025-1) issuance.The CEA last sponsored a catastrophe bond in December 2023 and in … Read more
Analysts at Keefe, Bruyette & Woods (KBW) are the second group to say that the returns generated from catastrophe reinsurance risk underwriting and capital allocation can remain strong, just so long as the industry remains disciplined on attachments, terms and conditions.It’s taken a while for it to become clearer that the real driver of the … Read more
A proposal published by the European Central Bank (ECB) and the European Insurance and Occupational Pensions Authority (EIOPA) calls for a natural catastrophe insurance system that includes pooling private risks, strengthening disaster risk management, and the use of catastrophe bonds to support catastrophe reinsurance availability for Europe.It follows a discussion paper from 2023 that called … Read more
Liberty Mutual has now secured the upsized target of $325 million of fully collateralized reinsurance protection through its new Mystic Re IV Ltd. (Series 2025-1) catastrophe bond, while the insurer benefited from high investor demand and strong cat bond execution to price the deal largely below initial guidance.Liberty Mutual Insurance came back to the cat … Read more
