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MultiStrat, the specialist underwriter and reinsurance investment facilitator, has completed its largest casualty insurance-linked securities (ILS) transaction to-date, a $205 million casualty ILS deal that it worked alongside investor Vida Capital to complete.

Consultants and insurers estimate £30bn-40bn worth of UK pension risk transfer deals a year for the next few years. The North American market is also expected to see more activity in the near future. As demand soars, insurers are becoming more innovative with their transactions.

Cat bond lite issuance surpassed $900 million for the third consecutive year in 2019, as a record-breaking 29 transactions came to market, according to the Artemis Deal Directory.

The World Bank has helped two more countries join those benefiting from a source of catastrophe contingent disaster risk financing, as both Vanuatu and Grenada become the latest to receive a Catastrophe Deferred Drawdown Option (Cat DDO) arrangement.

"The real problem with underwriting pandemic risk is that it tends to be correlated with financial markets. You don’t get the diversification offered by hurricanes and quakes."

Mexico has returned to the catastrophe bond market with the help of the World Bank seeking a $425 million or larger slice of parametric earthquake and hurricane disaster insurance from capital markets through an issue we’ve named IBRD / FONDEN 2020 that is the first to incorporate sustainable development bond features.

The promise of parametric triggers has always been faster claims payouts, with no lengthy assessment process and while many examples payout within days of a triggering event, the fastest we’ve seen following a true weather catastrophe is the payouts made within a day of windstorm Ciara by insurtech FloodFlash.

Despite the fact a catastrophe bond for Jamaica has not yet come to market, after receiving support to pay premiums for the in-development first issuance the Caribbean island nation is already preparing to budget for its future renewal.

Commitments to the Athene Co-Invest Reinsurance Affiliate (ACRA) insurance-linked sidecar vehicle have now reached an impressive $3.2 billion, as capital raising continued within the feeder fund managed by investor and private equity specialist Apollo Global. The ACRA vehicle launched with a target for a capital raise of around $4 billion, as life, annuities and pensions focused insurance and reinsurance company Athene and its parent Apollo looked to enable third-party investors to participate in private deals alongside the firm.

The latest catastrophe bond to be sponsored by Nationwide Mutual Insurance Company could turn out to be the U.S. primary insurers largest ever, as the target for the deal has grown with $500 million now seen as the upper-end goal for the Caelus Re VI Ltd. (Series 2020-1 & 2020-2) issuance.

Prudential Insurance Company of America closed its 7th and 8th strategic longevity reinsurance transactions with Rothesay Life, reinsuring a combined $6 billion of pension liabilities associated with two bulk annuity transactions completed in H2 2019.

Prudential said that it has executed another $6 billion of longevity reinsurance transactions with UK pension risk transfer specialist life insurer Rothesay Life, in two transactions that are the seventh and eighth between the pair.

The Co-operative’s Pace pension scheme has struck a £1bn (€1.2bn) pension insurance buy-in with the Pension Insurance Corporation (PIC), it was announced today. The deal guarantees the pension benefits of around 7,000 members in the £9bn Co-op section of the scheme.

The catastrophe bond market demonstrated critical resiliency during 2019 and delivered ample capacity at a time when it was most needed, according to Shiv Kumar, CEO of MMC Securities.

The use of rented transformer platform structures for insurance-linked securities (ILS) and private catastrophe bond transaction issuance continues to expand and a new Isosceles Re offering from Marsh & McLennan Companies and reinsurance broker Guy Carpenter is set to help make issuance of 4(2) securities more simple.

"In the aggregate, heading into 2020, investor appetite for the insurance-linked securities (ILS) sector remains strong and the thesis for long-term strategic allocation to this diversifying asset class continues to be intact, according to Shiv Kumar, CEO of MMC Securities."

United Insurance Holdings (UPC Insurance) is back in the insurance-linked securities (ILS) market for a fresh catastrophe bond issue for 2020, bringing a $130 million multi-peril Armor Re II Ltd. (Series 2020-1) transaction to market as it looks to expand on its capital markets backed reinsurance cover.

Generali, one of the largest global insurance and asset management companies, has recognised the potential for insurance and reinsurance linked investments to have green or ESG credentials and has developed a framework for Green insurance-linked securities (ILS).

Investors are betting that a special pandemic bond issued by the World Bank will pay out relief funds to countries affected by the coronavirus, as the death toll from the outbreak continues to mount.

Pandemic bonds are the right solution for two big problems: funding a pandemic threat response and improving the financial health of underfunded pension plans. Moreover, the underlying concept may be our best path to a peaceful, secure, prosperous future by turning the fragility of society in the face of large disasters into something more sturdy.

The pressure is rising on the World Bank’s pandemic catastrophe bond transaction as the novel coronavirus (2019-nCoV or Covid-19) spreads internationally and the number of deaths in certain countries around the globe nears the trigger point.

The upper-end target for the government of Mexico’s latest World Bank supported catastrophe bond issuance has been lifted, with the IBRD / FONDEN 2020 transaction now seeking up to $525 million of parametric earthquake and hurricane protection for the country.

The spreading global outbreak of the novel coronavirus (2019-nCoV or Covid-19) has now met another of the conditions within the trigger mechanism of the World Bank’s pandemic catastrophe bond transaction, raising the chance that noteholders face losses in the coming weeks.

The U.S. Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) successfully secured its latest and third catastrophe bond issuance, FloodSmart Re Ltd. (Series 2020-1), at the upsized target of $400 million, adding to its “lynchpin” flood reinsurance program

U.S. primary insurance giant Allstate is seeking a new $250 million or greater source of U.S. multi-peril property catastrophe reinsurance through sponsorship of a just launched Sanders Re II Ltd. (Series 2020-1) cat bond transaction.

Mitsui Sumitomo, an MS&AD Holdings insurance company, has returned to the catastrophe bond market to top-up its capital markets backed reinsurance protection with a currently $75 million Akibare Re Pte. Ltd. (Series 2020-1) Japan typhoon and flood risk transaction.

The secondary market price for the tranche of the World Bank’s pandemic catastrophe bond that is most at-risk of paying out due to the spreading global coronavirus outbreak has plummeted, while the lower risk tranche has now also been marked down.

Mexico’s latest World Bank supported catastrophe bond, the IBRD / FONDEN 2020 transaction, has now successfully secured $485 million of capital markets backed natural disaster insurance protection for the country, upsizing by 14% thanks to investor demand.

The President of the World Bank Group David Malpass has highlighted the importance of financial preparation for pandemic emergencies, of the kind provided by the Pandemic Emergency Financing Facility (PEF), which is backed by insurance including the now much-discussed World Bank issued pandemic catastrophe bonds.

In 2019, the Canadian group annuity market hit a record-breaking $5.2 billion in sales. Strong solvency ratios in Q4 and large transactions drove the results.