Reinsurance

Although Florida’s property insurance bill SB 408 became law May 17 upon the signature of Gov. Rick Scott, not all the provisions became effective that day.

While Florida insurers have long used catastrophe models to assess portfolio-level catastrophe risk, leading carriers assess catastrophe risk before the policy is underwritten. Incorporating catastrophe modeling into the underwriting process is easier than most assume.

Moody's Investors Service has changed PartnerRe Ltd.'s outlook to negative from stable due to the company's "outsized" first-quarter catastrophe losses relative to its peers.

Florida Office of Insurance Regulation approves another reinsurer under reduced-collateral terms.

Insurers are beginning to embrace the results of the new catastrophe model from Risk Management Services after getting over the initial shock of higher collateral reserves insurers may have to accept.

Natural disasters have impacted the bottom line of reinsurers globally, with combined losses from the Japanese and New Zealand earthquakes, and cyclone and flooding losses in Australia, totaling $15.7 billion for 23 property and casualty reinsurers, leading to an aggregate loss of $3.5 billion, according to a report from Fitch.