Howden Re, Howden’s global reinsurance, capital markets and strategic advisory business, has launched Novark, a new platform combining insurance management and securities administration with technology designed to improve how institutional investors access and monitor insurance risk.
The platform has been developed to provide investors with near real-time updates on their insurance investments. Howden Re says this is intended to improve transparency and give investors greater oversight of their positions, while also enabling them to take a more active role in managing their exposure.
Novark is designed to address a gap between the growing role of alternative capital in reinsurance and the infrastructure available to support it. Institutional investors have increasingly participated in the reinsurance market through insurance-linked securities (ILS) and other alternative capital structures, but the company says the systems and processes supporting these investments remain fragmented.
As insurance-linked investment structures have become more sophisticated, information and operational processes can involve multiple parties and technology systems. Novark has been created to bring these functions together within a single digital platform.
The company describes Novark as a capital markets-focused environment for insurance risk, giving market participants access to more consistent information and data on a near-real-time basis. For investors, Howden Re says this can provide greater visibility into investment performance and support more informed decision-making. For insurers and reinsurers, the platform is intended to streamline their interaction with third-party capital.
The Novark Group will operate through Novark Management Ltd., a Bermuda-incorporated insurance management and securities administration company currently known as Alternative Risk Management (Bermuda) Limited. The business will work with institutional investors, ILS funds, insurers, reinsurers, brokers and other participants across the insurance and capital markets.
Novark will combine insurance and securities expertise with its technology platform, while also drawing on Howden’s broader capabilities in reinsurance, analytics, ILS, capital markets and advisory services.
Razi Naqvi, currently Chief Innovation Officer at Howden Re, is responsible for leading the ongoing development and implementation of Novark.
He commented: “Insurance risk has developed into an increasingly important institutional asset class, but the infrastructure around it has not evolved at the same pace. If we want to attract more capital into the market, investors need the transparency, control and confidence they expect when investing elsewhere.
“Novark brings that capital markets experience to insurance providing the first near real-time data on how their insurance investments are performing. Investors should be able to see what is happening to their investment, understand it and act on it. By bringing participants onto the same digital infrastructure, and providing that unprecedented visibility this makes insurance risk more accessible to institutional capital, while giving insurers and reinsurers a more efficient way to access and manage third-party capital.”
Alex Bridges, CEO of Howden Re Bermuda, added: “Alternative capital is already fundamental to the reinsurance market, but there is a much bigger opportunity if we can make insurance risk easier for institutional investors to access, understand and manage.
“Novark offers purpose-built technology and infrastructure to support both established and highly innovative risk transfer structures. It also allows Howden to support clients across the full lifecycle of risk transfer, from advisory and structuring through to ongoing administration, governance and reporting.
“Bermuda is the natural place to build it. This is where reinsurance, ILS and institutional capital already come together, and Novark gives us an opportunity to help take that convergence to the next stage.”
