Comment

2 + 2 = 5?

Can 2+2 = 5 (TPRe and Sirius)?

Cynics may be tempted to cruelly dismiss the proposed $788mn merger* of Third Point Re and Sirius – announced yesterday evening – as two drunks propping each other up at the bar.

Confirmed post-Covid-19 capital

Covéa’s Eur750mn move highlights scale-ups and sidecars preferred to start-ups…

Covéa’s move to put Eur750mn into PartnerRe-managed special purpose vehicles looks like a compromise that gains the French mutual fast access to a hardening reinsurance market without a full-blown acquisition. But it also points to a growing consensus that scale-ups rather than start-ups will dominate the Covid-19 landscape.

Insurtech

Is the end nigh for the term ‘insurtech’?

Willis Towers Watson’s latest quarterly insurtech briefing included a provocative suggestion: is it time to stop labelling companies as insurtechs?

Hurricane Hanna

Hurricane season keeps ahead of schedule as peak period approaches

The first US landfalling hurricane of the year serves as a warning that the peak period of the Atlantic hurricane season is approaching. 

Ambac and Everspan

A heftier addition…

News broken by The Insurer that rehabilitated Ambac is lining up a live insurance platform that looks set to include a program fronting capability raises the prospect of a fresh addition to the already swollen ranks of vehicles that have rolled off the production line over the last few years.

California wildfires

Another hard (market) decision

The move to pull the proposed $2bn renewal of the California Wildfire Fund’s 2020 reinsurance programme is the latest example of a response from buyers to hardening momentum as capacity from reinsurers becomes meaningfully more expensive.

Florida

Florida opportunity draws interest

The well-documented woes of the Florida homeowners market might not paint a picture of a burgeoning opportunity for new entrants, but a number of recent developments point to fresh interest in the Sunshine State.

Lemonade

Investors’ thirst for Lemonade a good sign for other insurtechs

Lemonade’s soaring share price in its first day of trading will help assuage fears over how insurtechs are viewed in a post-Covid world.

New York boarded up shop front

Striking out…

Insurers risk further damage to the industry’s reputation if they impose blanket SRCC exclusions on standard property policies.

Reinsurance renewals

Calm between the storms

The 1 July renewal may have been conducted on a relative sea of tranquility compared to the swell that engulfed the Florida renewal a month earlier. But the water between here and 1 January is anything but clear.

FCA – UK and Sweden

Why is Hiscox so keen on Sweden?

What connects Sweden with Hurricane Katrina, and an upmarket hotel chain? The answer is likely to materialise later today when UK regulator the FCA publishes the defence submissions of Hiscox and seven other insurers who are involved in a landmark test case examining their denial of liability over Covid-19 business ...

Juneteenth

Juneteenth becomes a day for reflection

The death of George Floyd during an arrest in Minneapolis has shone a light on the inequalities that continues to pervade in the US.

Marine tanker ship

The corvette and the tanker…

While it is true that all boats rise with the tide, the marginal impact is naturally less if you’re an oil tanker compared to a nimble corvette.

Lloyd's

The Future at Lloyd’s… post-Covid-19

Yesterday, John Neal wrote to the market unveiling a host of changes that will allow underwriters and brokers alike to return to One Lime Street from 1 September.

Hurricane

Remember the brutal storm season of 2010?

No? Nor us.

E&S

Jumping on the E&S juggernaut

The news flow of the past week has provided irrefutable evidence that the US E&S sector is the hottest place in the global P&C market right now, with private equity money flooding in to back carriers and mega distribution M&A taking center stage.

Pool Re

£1bn Pool Re ball is back in the UK industry’s court…

Last month, this publication revealed that a consortium of UK insurer heavyweights – marshaled by the industry lobby group the ABI – asked the UK government’s permission to release £1bn from the reserves of the state-backed terrorism reinsurer Pool Re to gift to Britain’s smaller businesses impacted by the Covid-19 ...

Citizens and FHCF

Model Citizens

Florida’s cat fund and its insurer of last resort Citizens are both products of the unique dynamics of the private homeowners insurance market in the state.

Golden egg chick

Start-ups or scale-ups?

Last week, this publication revealed three early stage private equity, hard market funding initiatives.

II-buoy

Rising tide buoys brokers too

While there are many challenges to be navigated for the P&C sector in the Covid-19 fallout, surging pricing is proving to be a fillip that is lifting brokers as well as carriers.