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A rebound in issuance of property catastrophe risk linked deals has helped issuance of catastrophe bonds and related insurance-linked securities (ILS) reach a record level in the fourth-quarter of 2019, with $3.3 billion of new transactions recorded by Artemis.

Munich Re and Dutch pension fund manager PGGM have now completed issuance of their Leo Re Ltd. private sidecar arrangement for 2020, which is again $400 million in size.

The latest catastrophe bond from Swiss Re has been well-received by the ILS investor base, helping the Matterhorn Re Ltd. (Series 2020-1) cat bond double in size while marketing to become a $350 million issuance.

Hannover Re is back in the catastrophe bond market to source a slice of its own retrocessional coverage, with a $100 million or greater international multi-peril 3264 Re Ltd. (Series 2020-1) cat bond transaction.

Peak Reinsurance Company Limited (Peak Re), the Hong Kong headquartered global reinsurer that is majority backed by Fosun International, has renewed its ground-breaking Asian sidecar transaction, with a $77 million Lion Rock Re II issuance.

Hannover Re has added another almost $75 million of risk capital to its Seaside Re private catastrophe bond issues for 2020 through another seven transactions, taking the total issued around this January renewal season to $151.5 million.

Aetna, the health, medical and benefits insurance arm of CVS Health, has returned to the insurance-linked securities (ILS) market for its eleventh Vitality Re transaction (Vitality Re XI Ltd. (Series 2020)), as it continues to leverage the capital markets as a source of reinsurance capital.

A $100 million Stratosphere Re Ltd. (Series 2020-1) catastrophe bond will provide a source of reinsurance to cover certain primary insurance tail risks that were underwritten by and for ILS fund manager Nephila Capital.

U.S. primary insurer and global re/insurer Liberty Mutual has completed another collateralised reinsurance sidecar placement for 2020, with a $50 million slice of the arrangement now listed on the BSX.

Global specialist re/insurer AXIS Capital has added another layer to its Alturas Re collateralised sidecar issuance for 2020, with $47.25 million of what look like property catastrophe insurance linked notes issued in two tranches.

Alternative reinsurance capital for deployment into insurance-linked securities (ILS), collateralised contracts and catastrophe bonds was flat through the third-quarter of the year at $93 billion, but around $15 billion remained trapped at the end of September 2019, Aon believes.

A proposal from the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission could result in an expanded range of sophisticated investors being able to access and invest in insurance-linked securities (ILS), as the SEC proposes to extend the definition of accredited investor.

The new international multi-peril 3264 Re Ltd. (Series 2020-1) catastrophe bond transaction that is being sponsored by global reinsurance firm Hannover Re looks likely to upsize by 50% to become a $150 million issuance.

In advance of the WEF’s Davos 2020 meeting, United Nations representative Mark Lowcock, the Undersecretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs and Emergency Relief Coordinator, at the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (UN OCHA), raised catastrophe bonds and risk transfer to private or capital market investors as a key route towards sharing (transferring) risks.

The 2019 pension de-risking market in the United Kingdom was a record breaker, with several landmark buy-in and buy-out transactions by Rolls-Royce, Telent, Marks and Spencer, and British American Tobacco. In addition, there was an uptick in demand for scheme direct longevity risk transfer to help sophisticated defined benefit (DB) schemes appropriately hibernate their pension plans. The most notable example is The HSBC Bank (UK) Pension Scheme, which executed the second-largest captive longevity reinsurance transaction ever, totaling £7 billion ($8.7 billion) and covering over half their retiree liabilities.

The Horseshoe managed private catastrophe bond and insurance-linked securities (ILS) issuance vehicle Eclipse Re Ltd. has completed its first issuance of 2020, a $10 million Eclipse Re Ltd. (Series 2020-01A) transaction.

The longevity swap market is forecast to experience record levels of activity in 2020, with availability of reinsurance capacity likely to be a key consideration for pensions looking to offload the risk of their members living longer. Willis Towers Watson says that it expects to see longevity swap volumes surpassing UK £25 billion, which would be more than double the market activity seen in 2019. 2019 saw £12 billion of longevity swaps completed, as well as £41 billion of bulk annuities.

Iron Ore Company of Canada ("IOC"), a majority owned subsidiary of Rio Tinto, in its capacity as Plan administrator of its pension plan, executed a buy-in group annuity purchase with Sun Life. The deal, was valued at more than CAD $560 million and covered more than 3,700 retirees and beneficiaries.

American Strategic Insurance Group has returned to the catastrophe bond market for its second transaction under the Bonanza Re program, with a $100 million Bonanza Re Ltd. (Series 2020-1) transaction. American Strategic Insurance Group, a Progressive subsidiary, is seeking an expanded source of collateralised reinsurance from the capital markets with its second Bonanza Re cat bond, covering more perils and over a longer period of time than before.

Issuance of the Stratosphere Re Ltd. (Series 2020-1) catastrophe bond has now been successfully completed without upsizing at $100 million but at the lowest end of pricing, offering an efficient source of tail-risk protection to the largest ILS fund manager in the market Nephila Capital.

At issuance, the upsized by 50% $150 million 3264 Re Ltd. (Series 2020-1) international multi-peril catastrophe bond transaction brought to market by global reinsurance firm Hannover Re saw its pricing settle at the bottom-end of already reduced guidance, reflecting a roughly 6% fall while marketin

Swiss Re is back with a second catastrophe bond for 2020, seeking up to $275 million of retrocessional protection with a Matterhorn Re Ltd. (Series 2020-2) transaction that will cover it against certain losses from U.S. named storms and hurricanes, as well as extreme mortality exposures.

The Co-operators assumed the longevity risk for C$660 million of pension plan liabilities from the Co-operative Superannuation Society (CSS) Pension Plan.

The Dodd-Frank Act discouraged regulators and legislators from referencing credit ratings due to an inherent conflict of interest in the ratings process. Consequently, practitioners have difficulty identifying the conditions under which insurers can qualify for the safe harbor under the SECURE Act. It would be useful, for instance, to set a threshold involving asset levels, capital levels, product portfolio diversification, the number of states where the insurer is operating, and a few other easily verifiable parameters.

Global life, longevity and morbidity reinsurance firm Pacific Life Re has completed the second largest UK longevity swap transaction on record, taking on UK £10 billion of longevity risk from Lloyd’s Banking Group pension funds.

The Hymans-Robertson annual risk transfer report delves into the pension risk transfer market, with a particular focus on bulk annuities, and tracks the recent key changes. In a snapshot, 2019 was another record-breaking year, both in terms of transaction volumes and sizes. The total value of transactions completed surpassed the £40 billion mark, nearly doubling 2018’s record.

The U.S. Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) is back in the catastrophe bond market with a $300 million FloodSmart Re Ltd. (Series 2020-1), which will be its third transaction seeking flood reinsurance coverage from the capital market for its National Flood Insurance Program (NFIP).

The Philippines government continues to expand the role of insurance and reinsurance markets in its disaster risk financing arrangements and to better protect its people, businesses operating in the country and government-owned assets, with the latest initiative a new catastrophe risk pool for the private sector.

Nationwide Mutual Insurance Company has returned to the catastrophe bond market looking for a $340m or greater source of capital market backed U.S. multi-peril reinsurance protection, issuance, on both a per-occurrence and aggregate basis, with a twin Caelus Re VI Ltd. (Series 2020-1 & 2020-2).

Reinsurance firm Swiss Re has now successfully secured $255 million of hurricane and mortality risk retrocessional protection with its latest Matterhorn Re Ltd. (Series 2020-2) catastrophe bond transaction.