Reinsurance News
COVID-19 news
News about the impact of the global COVID-19 coronavirus pandemic and how it affected insurance and reinsurance markets.
Majority of industry participants feel safe returning to offices
10th May 2021
After consulting our substantial network of industry contacts, Reinsurance News found that a majority of respondents currently feel safe returning to an office-based working environment, 14 months on from COVID-19’s elevation to pandemic status by the World Health Organisation. COVID-19’s impact as a highly contagious respiratory disease, compounded early on by ... Read the full article
S&P highlights emerging markets’ ongoing vulnerability to COVID-19
7th May 2021
While widespread immunisation from COVID-19 looks to be achievable by most developed economies by the end of the third quarter, some emerging markets may have to wait until the year-end or later, according to S&P Global Ratings. For example, analysts note India's escalating second wave and the threat it poses in ... Read the full article
COVID-19 uncertainty remains a key risk for 2021: Munich Re CFO
6th May 2021
While the global vaccination effort is enabling parts of the world to open up and providing people with vital protection against COVID-19, all of which means reduced exposure for re/insurers, uncertainty remains for both the months ahead and the 2020 run-off, according to Christoph Jurecka, Chief Financial Officer (CFO) at ... Read the full article
Labuan IBFC highlights resilience despite challenging landscape
5th May 2021
The Labuan International Business and Financial Centre (Labuan IBFC) has highlighted its resilience and solid performance across sectors despite the unique challenges that 2020 brought. The Labuan Financial Services Authority was able to remain agile and respond to market needs via a set of pre-emptive temporary measures to alleviate the industry’s ... Read the full article
Despite a muted Q1 COVID impact, P&C isn’t in the clear yet: Swiss Re CFO
30th April 2021
For Swiss Re, COVID-19-related losses in its P&C Reinsurance segment were muted for the first-quarter of 2021, but that doesn't mean the business is "all clear for the rest of the year," according to Group Chief Financial Officer (CFO), John Dacey. Early this morning, Swiss Re announced COVID-19 losses of ... Read the full article
Chubb partners with Marsh to provide coverage for COVAX program
30th April 2021
Chubb and Marsh have collaborated with the World Health Organization (WHO) and Gavi, the Vaccine Alliance (Gavi), to provide coverage for The COVAX No-fault Compensation. The program offers lower-income countries and economies a process to receive compensation for events associated with vaccines distributed through COVAX up to the end of June ... Read the full article
Swiss Re’s Q1 net income hits $333m despite over $1bn of COVID & cat losses
30th April 2021
Global reinsurance giant Swiss Re has reported net income of $333 million for the first quarter of 2021 against a loss of $225 million in the prior year period, despite losses related to COVID-19 and large natural catastrophes of more than $1 billion. Alongside growth in net income across the Group, ... Read the full article
Munich Re’s Wenning urges public-private collaboration on systemic risks
29th April 2021
Joachim Wenning, Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of Munich Re Group, has urged governments and the private sector to pool their expertise and capabilities to tackle systemic risks such as pandemics. Speaking at Munich Re’s AGM this week, Wenning argued that, as a systemic risk, pandemic is fundamentally “beyond the boundaries” of ... Read the full article
Life reinsurers remain profitable despite COVID: Fitch
26th April 2021
Analysts at Fitch have reported that the world’s largest life and health reinsurers remained profitable in 2020, as heightened mortality losses from the coronavirus pandemic have only moderately impacted the segment so far. Fitch expects mortality claims related to the pandemic to decline in 2021 for Hannover Rueck SE, Munich Reinsurance ... Read the full article
COVID-19 creates disruption in infrastructure investment: Swiss Re
22nd April 2021
Global reinsurer Swiss Re has released a report which shows a short-term disruption in infrastructure investment as a result of COVID-19, however the reinsurer noted that the long-term trend has remained the same. It also expects the growth in infrastructure investment to resume this year as the vaccination roll-out enables economies ... Read the full article
COVID spurs P&C insurers to return $13bn in premiums: AM Best
21st April 2021
Analysts at AM Best have reported that US property and casualty (P&C) insurers returned roughly $12.9 billion in premiums over 2020 due to a reduction in exposures following the COVID-19 pandemic. In particular, stay-at-home restrictions reduced the amount of travel across the US last year, which resulted in a significant reduction ... Read the full article
ARA total capital up 6% to $270bn in 2020, despite COVID-19 headwinds
20th April 2021
Despite being hit with roughly $25 billion in pandemic and natural catastrophe-related losses, Aon’s Reinsurance Aggregate (ARA) of reinsurers reported positive earnings for 2020 and an increased capital base, aided by demonstrated access to new funding. ARA tracks the financial results of 23 of the world’s leading reinsurance firms annually. For 2020, ... Read the full article
COVID-19 claims costs tailing off sharply for US insurers, says Berenberg
16th April 2021
Initial results from US insurers suggest that COVID-19 claims costs are tailing off sharply rate rises in commercial lines, as well as in reinsurance, represent a very sharp and unrecognised margin improvement. Berenberg analysts sees this as a compound benefit to earnings growth, as it means that the earnings shortfall from ... Read the full article
BI test case pay-outs at £600m, but major insurers still lagging: FCA
14th April 2021
New data from the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) shows that to date £600 million has been paid out for claims related to the COVID-19 business interruption (BI) test case in the UK. This represents an increase of 25.5% from the £478 million in pay-outs that the FCA recorded roughly one ... Read the full article
Owners of festival cancel due to lack of government-backed insurance scheme
8th April 2021
The owners of Manchester-based festival Bluedot have released a statement that claims without any government-backed insurance scheme, the financial risks were too high for the festival to go ahead this summer. This statement comes after a recent YouGov survey showed that half of the UK population want to go to a ... Read the full article