Research and Trends News

Hedge Fund That Rode Catastrophe Bond Rally Mounts Tactical Retreat

A hedge fund that last year delivered its best result ever thanks to catastrophe bonds is now scaling back its position, based on a bet that the market is headed for a rough patch. Tenax Capital, which has a €100 …

Europe Faces 3C of Global Warming. Here’s How It Plans to Cope.

Europe will be 3C hotter even if the world succeeds in limiting global warming to 1.5C above pre-industrial levels, bringing with it the heightened peril of extreme weather and trillions of euros of damages to the economy. Such climactic hazards …

US P/C Industry Underwriting Loss Reaches 10-Year High: AM Best

Industry rating agency AM Best said the U.S. property/casualty industry’s underwriting loss for 2023 reached a 10-year high of $38 billion, attributable to severe weather-related losses, stubborn inflation, and upward reinsurance pricing. Analysts in the report published yesterday found that …

Skeptical AM Best Tags US D&O Segment With Negative Outlook

Rating agency AM Best has assigned a negative outlook to the U.S. directors and officers liability insurance segment as more market entrants increase capacity and drive down pricing in the face of some troubling potential risk exposures. “The current pricing …

Rising Sea Levels Increase Threat of Arsenic in Drinking Water: Study

Rising seas due to climate change could exacerbate the threat of arsenic in drinking water, according to a study published in PLOS One in January. Researchers focused on arsenic in well water in Bangladesh, where up to 97% of the …

Last Year Was Safest Ever to Fly, With No Jetliner Fatalities

Last year was the safest ever for commercial flying by a number of measures, the airline industry’s global lobby said, with no fatal accidents involving passenger jets in 37.7 million flights. No hull losses to passenger jets were recorded either, …

US, Philippines Pay Highest Economic Price for Climate-Fueled Weather

The United States and the Philippines are the countries hit hardest by climate-driven extreme weather, measured as a percentage of their economies, according to a report released Wednesday by global reinsurance giant Swiss Re. The US currently experiences the worst …

Banks, Insurers Targeted as Climate Group Seeks EU Review of Deforestation Rule

Climate activists are putting pressure on the European Union to reconsider its decision to exclude banks from a landmark deforestation rule, in a move designed to preempt an official review of the regulation next year. UK-based nonprofit Global Canopy says …

UK Has More ‘Fragile Firms’ Than EU Peers: Allianz Report

The UK has the highest proportion of “fragile firms” out of all major European economies, another sign of the headwinds facing Prime Minister Rishi Sunak as he attempts to boost growth. About 15% of small and medium-sized enterprises in the …

Clyde & Co: M&A Activity to ‘Start to Increase Through 2024’

The number of worldwide mergers and acquisitions in the insurance sector in 2023 dropped to 346, down from 449 in the previous year, according to a new report from Clyde & Co. But the global law firm believes “deal activity …