September 2016/1

With Hurricane Hermine ultimately proving something of a false alarm, discussions at Monte Carlo later this week are likely to set the industry on a path towards a still-soft, but relatively stable 1 January renewal

Lloyd's managing agent Pembroke is the lead underwriter for the $285mn loss caused by the explosion of a SpaceX rocket in Florida last week, The Insurance Insider can reveal

You know the high-end boutiques in very expensive neighbourhoods?

The UK's Prudential Regulation Authority (PRA) has admitted that parts of the Senior Insurance Managers Regime (SIMR) are not yet in place even though it has now passed its own summer deadline

Ledger Investing, the start-up led by former AIG head of capital markets Samir Shah, is aiming to disrupt the insurance industry not by targeting new client-facing or distribution innovations but by starting with back-end operations

WR Berkley subsidiary Berkley Professional Liability is set to launch a transactional division with the hire of Randy Hein from rival Chubb, The Insurance Insider can reveal

International broker Willis Towers Watson has hired Chuck Shay from its rival Integro, The Insurance Insider can reveal

After more than a decade of benign hurricane activity, the arrival of Hurricane Hermine on Florida's shores turned out to be more of a damp squib than the hoped-for market-changing event

Profit forecasts for Names-backed Lloyd's syndicates in the 2014 year of account (YoA) improved during the second quarter of the year, aided by projected releases and exchange rate benefits

The margin of reinsurer returns over the industry's cost of capital is steadily eroding and only benign catastrophe losses and abundant reserve releases have enabled the reinsurance sector in the aggregate to earn its cost of capital in 2015 and in the year-to-date

Lloyd's Performance Management Directorate (PMD) has carried out a class review of accident and health (A&H) business amid concerns about underwriting standards in some sections of the class, sister title Inside FAC has revealed

Leading figures in the Italian (re)insurance market have urged the government to reconsider its approach to introducing a natural catastrophe consortium following last month's tragic earthquake

Independent employee-owned Lloyd's broker Endeavour Insurance Services has recorded a change in its fortunes, swinging from a pre-tax £1.1mn loss at the end of 2015 to a £1mn profit in the first half of 2016

Lloyd's will hold onto its European business one way or the other, Lloyd's chairman John Nelson has said in a speech that again appealed to the government to fight hard to maintain EU passporting rights

Brett joins MS Amlin as aviation chief; Istmo Re downgraded; AIG offloads PICC stake; Sartawi promoted to Aon Benfield Middle East head; Axa Belgium mulls 650 job losses; Integro acquires...

Listed (re)insurers' underwriting results worsened in the second quarter of 2016 as carriers were bludgeoned by high cat losses while expense ratios continued to widen.

While investment yields remained roughly at the same low levels of a year ago for some carrier groups, there was a surge in yields for London-listed (re)insurers during the first half of 2016.

The first half of the year brought a mixed bag for returns among The Insurance Insider's composites as thinning underwriting margins and investment returns behaved differently for each group within our analysis.

Insurance chief investment officers (CIOs) will be familiar with the trend that has seen more money allocated to high-yield assets over the past few years.

For the second consecutive month The Insider 30 posted a positive average share price movement, although the 0.9 percent growth it achieved in August failed to surpass the 1.4 percent increase in July.

Zenkyoren is looking to add to its multi-year aggregate insurance through a new $250mn Nakama Re cat bond, sister publication Trading Risk has reported.

Share price data on The Insurance Insider's universe of P&C (re)insurers

Vario Partners has won backing from a large Middle Eastern reinsurer as it prepares to launch its first fund and issue its first whole-account insurance securities, the company told sister publication Trading Risk.

The Gator Re cat bond faces claims that have eroded 85 percent of the deal's deductible, sources told sister publication Trading Risk.

The British Insurance Brokers' Association (Biba) is now looking at a September start for its flood insurance initiative for UK businesses and property owners

As Hermine headed towards the Florida coast late last week, sell-side analysts were making a case for the seasonal hurricane trade on reinsurance stocks.