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Winemakers in the Bordeaux and Cognac regions of southwest France are facing the prospect of bankruptcy after violent hailstorms inflicted extensive damage across hundreds of vineyards. Official sources estimate 10,000 hectares (24,710 acres) out of a total 70,000 hectares were affected.
The impact of the storm on winemakers could lead to a jump in agricultural insurance claims from vineyards across the region.
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Global reinsurance giant Swiss Re has highlighted the key macro trends that its research finds are threatening the insurance and reinsurance business model, among which are the insurance-linked securities (ILS) sector and in particular the risk of collateralised reinsurance.
Each year Swiss Re publishes its Sonar report that seeks to identify emerging and developing societal risks that the insurance and reinsurance industry should care about. Alongside this the reinsurer also highlights the key macro trends that are at work in the risk markets and in society at large.
ORIGINAL PUBLICATION HERE
State-owned companies will continue to dominate the insurance market of Belarus in the medium term, the latest FITCH Ratings’ report states.
Last year half of the 16 Belarusian insurers were state owned and accounted for 88% of the market GWP. The remaining market players were privately owned domestic and foreign-owned companies.
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The Government of Nigeria has signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with the African Risk Capacity (ARC) as part of a collaborative effort to address the impact of extreme weather events in Nigeria.
The MoU was signed during the 2018 Annual Meetings of the African Development Bank (AfDB) in Busan, South Korea, and the arrangement is expected to include training support for Nigerian government personnel.
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H.E. President Uhuru Kenyatta chaired a Special Cabinet Meeting today at State House, Nairobi, during which Cabinet considered and approved the following Cabinet Papers:
The National Disaster Risk Management Policy
Cabinet approved the National Disaster Risk Management Policy. The Policy is benchmarked on the best practices in disaster risk management. It lays down the strategies for ensuring the Government commits itself to enhancement of research in disasters and formulation of risk reduction strategies.
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Hamilton Insurance Group, the Bermuda based insurance and reinsurance holding company, has announced the launch of a third-party capital arm named Hamilton Capital Partners and has hired ILS sector specialist Brenton Slade from Horseshoe as Senior Vice President for the new unit.
Hamilton Capital Partners will be tasked with developing Hamilton’s capital management capabilities, as the firm looks to expand its management of reinsurance capacity funded by third-party capital market investors.
ORIGINAL PUBLICATION HERE
The role of insurance-linked securities (ILS) and alternative reinsurance capital in paying catastrophe claims related to climate change is set to increase, as the insurance and reinsurance sector becomes increasingly aware of the climate risk it faces and turns to efficient capacity to help it offset them.
The rating agency says that Environment, Social and Governance (ESG) issues are likely to increasingly be integrated into the business strategies of insurance and reinsurance firms, with this also presenting some opportunities as the awareness and visibility of the climate related risks being underwritten grows.
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The government of the Bahamas has signed back up to parametric insurance coverage from the CCRIF SPC (formerly the Caribbean Catastrophe Risk Insurance Facility) for the coming hurricane season, but on a restructured basis with the country divided into three regional zones.
The new arrangement, announced by the deputy PM and reported by the Bahamas Tribune, splits the Bahamas into three zones, each with separate parametric triggers, featuring different attachment points and payout factors, to enhance the coverage that the country receives.
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The City of Miami Beach in Florida is looking into parametric triggers for insurance solutions to protect its revenue from taxes paid by the tourism industry, in recognition that weather, hurricanes and other crises such as the Zika virus outbreak have all had a significant impact on the City’s ability to make money.
Miami Beach is of course hurricane ground-zero, a location that has about the highest density of insured values that are exposed to cyclonic storms in the world and of course this is also ground-zero for the insurance, reinsurance and insurance-linked securities (ILS) industry as a result.
ORIGINAL PUBLICATION HERE
Japan Post Bank will boost its combined allocations to private equity, real estate, hedge funds and private debt by roughly ¥7 trillion ($64 billion) over the coming three years to offset an expected decline in yields on the Tokyo-based bank’s vast holdings of Japanese government bonds.
The ¥207.7 trillion bank’s medium-term management plan for the three years through March 31, 2021, released last week, targets ¥8.5 trillion in alternatives investments by the close of that period, up from ¥1.6 trillion as of the March 31, 2018, close of its latest fiscal year.
