With the majority of 2019 reinsurance renewals now complete, the impact of significant catastrophe activity has evolved from a year ago. Capital inflow levels and risk appetites are responding accordingly. Crucially, alternative capital dipped slightly in the first half of 2019 for the first time since 2012 to USD 92 billion as investors responded to evolving risk measures and ... Continue Reading »
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Market Conditions Shift as (Re)insurers Adjust to the Changing Nature of Risk
The growing complexity of risk is manifesting itself in the (re)insurance sector as underwriting assumptions are being challenged, and capital inflow levels and risk appetites respond accordingly. Crucially, the accumulation of losses from a range of diverse natural catastrophe perils in 2017 and 2018 has brought an end to years of soft (re)insurance market conditions as ... Continue Reading »
Guy Carpenter and CyberCube Report Reveals Potential Impact of Cyber Catastrophe Scenarios on U.S. Cyber Insurance Industry
Guy Carpenter and CyberCube Analytics released the findings of a joint report that explores the size and shape of potential cyber catastrophes and the resulting financial impact on the U.S. cyber insurance market. The report, “Looking Beyond the Clouds: A U.S. Cyber Insurance Industry Catastrophe Loss Study,” examined some of the key drivers of cyber catastrophe scenarios and ... Continue Reading »
Property Terrorism Insurance Take-Up Rates Higher in Major Metropolitan Areas
Companies based in the Northeast United States have traditionally purchased property terrorism insurance at a higher rate than companies based in other regions. Unsurprisingly, 80 percent of companies based in New York purchased terrorism insurance in 2018, tying it with Chicago for the lead among major U.S. cities that are perceived as higher-value targets for terrorist ... Continue Reading »
As Wildfires Get Costlier and Deadlier, Insurers and Utilities Pay the Price
Rob Bailey, Director of Climate Resilience at Marsh & McLennan Insights Contact The wildfires of 2017 and 2018 have led some to ask whether we have entered a fiery new normal. But the “new normal” framing — the idea that we have reached a new equilibrium — is misleading. Climate change and growing numbers of people and assets in fire prone areas mean there is little ch ... Continue Reading »
How to Line Up Your Cyber Defense
Given the reality of the cyber threat landscape, you need to determine the tools you need to mitigate and respond to inevitable cyber attacks. Unfortunately, while both the aggressiveness and sophistication of cyber attacks have accelerated, defensive capabilities have been relatively slow to evolve and respond (1). ... Continue Reading »
Complications That Impact Cyber Resilience
In an increasingly complex business and cyber landscape, organizations encounter greater challenges when trying to balance their business resilience and cyber security priorities. Between 2016 and 2018, the rate of growth for internet users was 10 times faster than the global population. Correspondingly, the surface area for attack has expanded exponentially (1). The ... Continue Reading »
Terrorism Risk Is Declining, but a Closer Look Shows an Ominous, Evolving Threat
Let's start with the good news: Terrorism risk is declining in many countries. Between 2018 and 2019, plenty of evidence surfaced to underline this positive trend. The Islamic State (IS), which once controlled territory roughly equivalent in size to Portugal, no longer controls any land. In 2018, the number of people globally killed in terrorist attacks dropped by more than ... Continue Reading »
Changes in the Reliance on TRIPRA
In the United States, the Terrorism Risk Insurance Program Reauthorization Act of 2015 (TRIPRA) is scheduled to expire at the end of 2020. Renewal under its current structure and coverages remains uncertain. As a result, carriers are beginning to explore and, in some cases, to secure, additional reinsurance limits and coverages under the assumption that there is a finite amount ... Continue Reading »
Seasonal North Atlantic Hurricane Outlook
Seasonal outlooks generally call for a near-normal hurricane season, relative to the 1981-2010 average. The 2019 season comes after an active 2018 season with 15 named storms, including significant impacts from Hurricanes Florence and Michael. While the traditional hurricane season begins June 1 in the North Atlantic Basin, Subtropical Storm Andrea made a brief appearance ... Continue Reading »
