Reinsurance News
IRB Brasil Re sinks to $125mn loss in Q2
1st September 2020
Brazilian reinsurer IRB Brasil Re recorded a net loss of $124.7 million in the second quarter of 2020, compared to a $72.3 million profit in the prior year quarter. The firm's combined ratio for the quarter stood at 167%, up from 84.7% in the prior year quarter. Written premium increased 8% year-over- year and ... Read the full article
Hippo completes acquisition of Spinnaker
1st September 2020
Hippo, the California-headquartered, homeowners focused InsurTech, has closed its acquisition of Spinnaker Insurance Company, a national property and casualty insurer licensed in 50 US states. Since 2017, Hippo Insurance Services has partnered with Spinnaker as its largest carrier platform, with Hippo products that are backed by Spinnaker currently available in more ... Read the full article
China Re’s GWP climbs 21% in H1 2020 as profit dips
1st September 2020
China Reinsurance (Group) Corporation has announced a 24% dip in net profit for the first-half of 2020 while gross written premiums (GWP) jumped by almost 21% in the period. Overall, the reinsurer's GWP reached RMB102.1 billion in H1 2020, with growth of 17.6% in P&C reinsurance, 31.4% in L&H reinsurance, and ... Read the full article
Roelant de Haas named CEO of Reinsurance Solutions for Aon Nederland
1st September 2020
Re/insurance broker Aon has announced that Roelant de Haas will become the new CEO of Reinsurance Solutions for its business in the Netherlands. As CEO of Reinsurance Solutions for Aon Nederland, de Haas will be responsible for all reinsurance activities within the country. The appointment is effective from September 1 and will ... Read the full article
Emerging market insurers to be hardest hit by COVID-19: Swiss Re
1st September 2020
Reinsurance giant Swiss Re has reported that emerging market insurers will be the hardest-hit globally by COVID-19. It is estimated that insurers will be hit with a 3.6 percentage point impact on premium growth in each of 2020 and 2021. However, China's insurance market is the exception, with average premium growth of ... Read the full article
Capsicum Re to rebrand as Gallagher Re from October
1st September 2020
Reinsurance brokerage Capsicum Re is set to rebrand itself, to reflect its parent company, as Gallagher Re from October 1st, aligning its reinsurance business with the broader Gallagher retail and wholesale insurance broking arm. Arthur J. Gallagher & Co. increased its interest in Capsicum Reinsurance Brokers LLP to 100%, from ... Read the full article
Asia pandemic claims manageable but evolving: Fitch
1st September 2020
Asian reinsurers’ losses related to the coronavirus pandemic appear to be on a manageable scale thus far due to tight measures to curb the spread of the virus, according to Fitch Ratings. The rating agency noted that most Asian reinsurers entered the crisis well-capitalised, but warned that business growth could slow ... Read the full article
Hurricane Laura onshore insured property loss close to $9bn: KCC
31st August 2020
Onshore property insurance market losses in the United States and Caribbean will be close to $9 billion, according to an estimate from Karen Clark & Company (KCC). Karen Clark & Company's industry loss estimate includes $8.7 billion of insured losses in the U.S., driven by hurricane Laura's wind and storm surge ... Read the full article
Hurricane Laura onshore insured losses estimated up to $8bn by AIR
31st August 2020
Catastrophe risk modelling specialist AIR Worldwide has estimated that onshore insured property losses from recent hurricane Laura will fall between $4 billion and $8 billion. The estimate, which is the first of the official post-landfall figures from a catastrophe risk modeller, is based only on industry insured losses to onshore property ... Read the full article
2020 California wildfires may lead to further spikes in reinsurance rates: AM Best
28th August 2020
Considering the existing rate hardening that has been created by the COVID-19 pandemic, this year's record-breaking California wildfire season could spur further reinsurance rate increases, AM Best says. The 2020 wildfire season has affected coastal areas that do not usually burn and has seen the still-ongoing LNU Lightning Complex event and the SCU ... Read the full article
Peak Re posts robust performance in H1, COVID-19 impact “mild”
28th August 2020
Hong Kong domiciled reinsurer Peak Reinsurance has reported a net income of $26.1 million over the first half of 2020, up from $13.5 million in the prior year period. Despite the negative impact COVID-19 continues to have on overall re/insurance industry performance, Peak Re's results in the period are strong. In fact, ... Read the full article
Trean posts 42% income drop in Q2
28th August 2020
Insurance management and reinsurance consulting company Trean Insurance Group, Inc. has posted a 41.8% decrease in net income over the second quarter of 2020. After completing its initial public offering (IPO) in July 2020, Trean recorded a net income of $3.7 million for the Q2 period, down from $6.4 million for ... Read the full article
State-backed agricultural reinsurer approved in China: reports
28th August 2020
A new state-backed agricultural reinsurer has been approved by China's banking and insurance regulator, according to reports from Xinhua News Agency and Reuters. The company is reported to have been established with $2.34 billion in registration capital. Among the nine shareholders to have co-established the reinsurer are the Ministry of Finance, China ... Read the full article
GuideOne hires senior positions
28th August 2020
GuideOne National has announced the appointment of Nigel Spain to the position of Head of Global Technical Property, as well as Randy Thompson’s appointment to Senior Risk Engineer. Both positions will take place effective immediately. In his new role, Spain will be responsible for leading the commercial property team in the wholesale ... Read the full article
North American P&C results stable despite COVID challenges: Fitch
28th August 2020
Analysts at Fitch Ratings have noted that the H1 results of the North America property and casualty (P&C) re/insurance sector show “relative stability” despite the challenges of the COVID-19 pandemic. Overall, operating performance for this sector declined over the first six months of 2020, as the pandemic hit underwriting results and ... Read the full article