Archive

  • Life ILS markets feel the heat from high rates

    29 May 2024

    It has been a tough period for the life insurance-linked securities (ILS) market, afflicted by higher interest rates and unexpected losses. But participants are hopeful of a revival, as Christopher Cundy reports

  • Cyber risk is systematically priced in the capital markets: evidence from the Target cyber-attack

    09 May 2024

    In the second part of their article on quantifying and pricing cyber risk, Tim Freestone and Malcolm McLelland respond to reader queries and share further proof of their theory

  • Cyber risk's fundamental mischaracterisation as an insurance risk

    15 November 2023

    Tim Freestone and Malcolm McLelland argue for a radical overhaul of how cyber risk is quantified and priced. In the first of a two-part article, they explain the classification of cyber as a market risk and propose using modern financial theory to model it

  • Insurers caught up in the Swiss roil

    21 March 2023

    The fall of Credit Suisse, hot on the heels of SVB and Signature Bank, has sent insurers scrambling to assess the risks to their portfolios. While the hit seems manageable, Sarfraz Thind asks if there could be worse to come

  • Gilts crash: a boon out of a crisis for insurers

    18 October 2022

    Another day, another UK financial market crash. But while it has gone wrong for British politics and pension funds, the current crisis may actually benefit insurers in the long run. Ronan McCaughey and Sarfraz Thind report

  • The path to sustainable cyber insurance

    14 October 2022

    The cyber insurance market is growing rapidly, but demand exceeds current capacity and insurers may lose relevance unless they redefine the risk and improve their modelling. Joshua Geer reports

  • Ledger Investing aims to crack the casualty ILS code

    12 October 2022

    Led by ex-AIG chief risk officers, Ledger Investing is entering the relative unknown in connecting insurance-linked securities (ILS) investors with casualty risks. Paul Walsh reports

  • The UK gilts crisis: a worry, not a disaster, for insurers

    30 September 2022

    Plunging sterling and soaring gilt yields are buffeting insurers, but longer-term impacts of the government's disastrous "mini budget" are the real concerns, as Sarfraz Thind reports

  • Regulators investigate the private equity-insurer love-in

    04 February 2022

    Private equity companies have been acquiring insurers at an unheard of rate. Now regulators have raised concerns over asset risk and short-term greed overcoming long-term sense, as Sarfraz Thind reports

  • Apac re/insurers welcome the alternative

    29 December 2021

    Regulators in Asia have been busy creating frameworks for insurers to transfer risk to capital markets investors. Re/insurers are keen to tap this alternative source of capital, if the structures are right. David Walker reports