Catastrophe Risks

In its annual hurricane season report, Fitch Ratings suggests that the COVID-19 pandemic's continuation into this year's hurricane season is likely to increase the challenge for insurers if a major storm occurs. Most 2020 hurricane season forecasts predict above-average activity this year. Read More

The Federation of European Risk Management Associations (FERMA) has called on the European Commission to create a European Union business interruption resilience framework for catastrophic risks. FERMA called on the commission to address the "severe shortage" of business interruption insurance for disruptions that don't involve physical damage. Read More

The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) is predicting an above-normal Atlantic hurricane season this year with a range of 13 to 19 named storms of which 6 to 10 could become hurricanes, including 3 to 6 major hurricanes. The Atlantic hurricane season runs from June 1 through November 30. Read More

Life/health-related catastrophe (cat) bonds face the greatest risk of losses from the COVID-19 pandemic, compared with other insurance-linked securities (ILS), according to A.M. Best. Best suggests that the COVID-19 pandemic's overall impact on the ILS market-including most catastrophe bonds-should be limited. Read More

The COVID-19 pandemic appears to be doing little to slow issuance of catastrophe bonds and other insurance-linked securities, with issuers bringing $6.1 billion to market thus far in 2020, according to data from the Artemis Deal Directory. There has been $1.06 billion in issuance so far during the second quarter. Read More