Reinsurance News
Coronavirus news coverage of relevance to reinsurance and insurance markets.
All of our Covid-19 coronavirus news, analysis and insight related to insurance and reinsurance market impacts can be found below.
The coronavirus Covid-19 pandemic of 2019-20 resulted in significant disruption and threatened losses widely across the insurance and reinsurance markets.
3rd December 2020
Despite 2020 having proved itself a challenging year to date for the re/insurance industry, analysts at investment banking firm Stonybrook Capital say most US property and casualty firms managed to cover their cost of capital. The S&P 500 returned 18.1% over the 12 months through November 13, while bonds did well. However, ... Read the full article
2nd December 2020
The high frequency of catastrophe events experienced in the U.S. through the third-quarter of 2020, coupled with a substantial level of additional losses related to the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic, hindered the performance of North American (NA) property/casualty (P/C) re/insurers in 9M 2020, reports Fitch Ratings. Fitch's analysis looks at the 9M ... Read the full article
2nd December 2020
Century 21, a New York based department store chain that recently filed for bankruptcy, has reportedly sold a stake in its legal battle for owed business interruption (BI) claims related to the pandemic. According to Bloomberg law, the embattled store has sold the rights to the $175 million of COVID-19 BI ... Read the full article
1st December 2020
According to Swiss Re CEO Christian Mumenthaler, the re/insurance industry vastly underestimated the cost of a global pandemic due to its failure to account for the extent of government lockdown measures. Speaking in an interview with the Financial Times, Mumenthaler acknowledged that re/insurer models had misjudged just how far governments around ... Read the full article
1st December 2020
Global reinsurance giant Munich Re has reported that its reinsurance operation is set to book COVID-19 related losses of €3.4 billion in 2020, while additional burdens of roughly €500 million are anticipated to come from the pandemic in 2021. For Q3 2020, the reinsurer announced a further €800 million of ... Read the full article
30th November 2020
AM Best has warned that pandemic business interruption (BI) coverage will continue to represent a significant source of uncertainty for Australian commercial insurers following the verdict of legal test case in the country. The New South Wales Court of Appeal sided unanimously against the arguments made by insurers in its ruling. The ... Read the full article
26th November 2020
With Covid-19 losses increasing sector risk premiums, the presence of higher rates across most lines is creating opportunities for margin expansion and driving a continuing inflow of new investment capital, according to David Flandro, Managing Director at HX Analytics. In a presentation given during the company's third quarter earnings update, Flandro ... Read the full article
26th November 2020
A survey conducted by the Chartered Insurance Institute has found that 54% of its members do not feel it is economically sustainable for the government to “step in as an insurer of last resort.” The survey included 476 CII members and was conducted in October. “Ultimately, no government can save every business,” said ... Read the full article
26th November 2020
Although news around a potential COVID-19 vaccine is a positive step, the investment landscape remains extremely challenging for global re/insurers and there's a continued need for creativity and innovation, according to industry experts. On day two of Prospectus 2021, the audience heard from three very experienced investors whose firms ... Read the full article
25th November 2020
Barclays analysts expect this second wave of COVID-19 to incur less cost for European insurers than what was initially seen during the first half of 2020. Analysts note how positive vaccine news, further political clarity in the US, stabilised yields and the latest COVID loss estimates create a positive backdrop for ... Read the full article
24th November 2020
IAG has successfully completed a $650 million fully underwritten institutional placement, as the company looks to compensate for an anticipated $865 million hit from pandemic-related business interruption claims. A NSW Court of Appeal ruled last week that insurers could not decline business interruption claims due to incorrectly worded exclusions for ... Read the full article
24th November 2020
With the announcement that 51 new insurers were registered in Bermuda throughout October, PwC’s territory and insurance leader Arthur Wightman has released a statement praising the resilience of the island in 2020. Wightman said Bermuda has overseen the deployment of between $12 billion and $15 billion in new capital over the ... Read the full article
20th November 2020
Australian insurance group IAG intends to recognise a $865 million hit from pandemic-related business interruption claims and as a result will be looking to raise $750 million in new equity capital. IAG’s announcement follows a NSW Court of Appeal ruling that insurers could not decline business interruption claims due to incorrectly ... Read the full article
20th November 2020
Rating agency AM Best has released a new report showing how the COVID-19 pandemic has created disruption for underwriters in each of the US professional liability insurance market lines. Earlier this year, after the initial pandemic surge in the US, AM Best had placed a negative rating against the professional liability ... Read the full article
19th November 2020
The Chairman of Lloyd's of London, Bruce Carnegie-Brown, said at a recent Reuters event that the global insured loss from the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic will exceed the market's previous estimate of $107 billion. Back in May, the specialist insurance and reinsurance marketplace said that it expects to pay customers up to ... Read the full article
