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In a rapidly evolving re/insurance landscape, Vantage Risk is positioning itself at the forefront of innovation and adaptability, particularly in the insurance-linked securities (ILS) space.

Speaking with Artemis, Chris McKeown, Chief Executive, Reinsurance, ILS, and Innovation, at Vantage Risk, outlined how the firm is approaching capital deployment, navigating current market dynamics, and leveraging ILS to drive sustainable, long-term growth.

The firm has deployed a substantial amount of its $1.5bn partnership capital raise, and expects to deploy remaining capacity of appx. $100 million over the next month. According to McKeown, the firm’s strategy has been shaped by both opportunity and caution.

“We’re ahead of where we were last year,” McKeown said. “The reinsurance market is front-loaded, with most opportunities appearing between January and July. We’ve maintained a focus on demand-driven, customized solutions that differentiate us in an increasingly crowded marketplace.”

A key part of this deployment includes a deliberate allocation to aggregate structures, where underwriting discipline is paramount, and these structures help craft a more diversified investment portfolio.

“These structures require more robust analysis than traditional per-occurrence products. That’s where our data and analytics capabilities provide real advantage, with approximately a quarter of our colleagues devoted to driving insights for underwriters,” McKeown added.

This tailored approach helps Vantage stay competitive, especially in a softening market.

“As supply grows, we need to be more creative with our portfolio. We’re focused on delivering large capacity and swift execution through bespoke deals that meet specific client needs,” McKeown said.

McKeown emphasized that ILS is not just an ancillary part of Vantage’s strategy, it’s foundational to the firm’s future.

“We see ILS as absolutely fundamental to how the market continues to evolve and grow,” he said.

“It gives us access to more capital and supports product development, it brings transparency, promotes product innovation, and disciplines the P&L through frequent and rigorous investor reporting.”

ILS also offers access to deep, scalable capital that may not be available through traditional reinsurance channels during times of market stress. “That kind of capital, when properly managed, allows us to develop new products and extend coverage in ways that wouldn’t be possible relying solely on our balance sheet,” McKeown added.

He cited Vantage’s use of Bermuda’s segregated cell technology as an example of the structural innovation that ILS makes possible. “These structures have helped push the entire market toward greater operational efficiency and clarity.”

Moreover, McKeown acknowledged that while margins in the property catastrophe space have come down slightly since 2023, investor appetite for ILS remains strong, provided the value proposition is clear.

“ILS remains non-correlating and provides tail protection in an investor’s portfolio,” he said.

“Given the diversifying nature of re/insurance, it almost always makes sense to have some allocation to this asset strategy, even in parts of the market cycle where we may see softening pricing.”

More importantly, Vantage is seeing increased interest from investors in other lines of business.

“We’ve had a lot of discussions around expanding into marine, energy, aviation, and cyber. These areas offer different market cycles and return expectations, which can help balance an investor’s exposure beyond just property cat,” McKeown explained.

Ultimately, McKeown sees flexibility and alignment as core tenets of Vantage’s ILS strategy.

“We’re not just an asset-gathering platform. We’re here to ensure that every line of business we write delivers a return that resonates with investors,” McKeown concludes.

Read all of our interviews with ILS market and reinsurance sector professionals here.

ILS Is fundamental to market evolution and growth: McKeown, Vantage Risk was published by: www.Artemis.bm
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Property Claim Services (PCS), the unit of Verisk that is a provider of industry loss estimates and loss data to the reinsurance and ILS industry globally, has hired Harry White as its new Head of Commercial Strategy, while also naming Ted Gregory as its new Head of Research and Operations.

The company explained that its “refreshed leadership structure” shows its continued strong commitment to the insurance, reinsurance and insurance-linked securities (ILS) market, while enhancing PCS’ capabilities across natural and specialty lines catastrophe events.

Harry White joins PCS after spending more than 14 years working at Verisk and AIR Worldwide, in roles focused on catastrophe bonds and the insurance-linked securities (ILS) market.

White began working at AIR Worldwide in 2010 in business development, working to help entities across the reinsurance market, including ILS funds, adopt the AIR catastrophe risk models.

In 2016 White moved into roles focused solely on ILS securities at AIR and then Verisk, working on catastrophe bond risk analysis reports, offering circular information, and assisting with ILS related RFP’s and other liaison with ILS fund managers regarding the AIR model suite.

He ultimately became a Senior Manager for the Verisk Extreme Event Solutions team, playing a leading role in much of the cat bond and ILS related work and business development there over the last few years.

As a result, White brings an interesting perspective to the Head of Commercial role at PCS, with deep understanding of the cat bond offering, how ILS managers utilise models and data, as well as experience across the range of risk transfer structures.

In addition, White has a proven track-record in client engagement and development, as well as highly technical understanding for the use-cases of PCS and its industry-loss reporting, data and indices offerings.

“I’m thrilled to be joining PCS as Head of Commercial Strategy at such an exciting time for the business,” commented White. “Having spent most of my career at Verisk. I’ve seen first-hand the critical role PCS plays in delivering trusted insights to the global (re)insurance sectors.

“I look forward to working closely with clients and partners to deepen market engagement and advance the company’s commercial strategy that supports PCS’s growth and innovation.”

In addition, PCS has also made another senior change, appointing long-standing employee Ted Gregory to the newly created role of Head of Research and Operations.

Gregory has been a leader at PCS since joining in 2013 and was made its Head of Operations in 2023.

Gregory will now take on an expanded role in leading both research and operational activities for PCS.

The company said this move and the expansion of Gregory’s role “reflects PCS’s continued emphasis on analytical precision and transparency and as a trusted partner to the industry.”

“It’s critical we continue to advance our commitment to delivering deeper, more analytically rigorous insights in line with growing global (re)insurance and ILS markets,” Gregory explained. “We are continuing to enhance the foundation of our natural catastrophe and specialty market methodologies to ensure they remain robust, transparent, and aligned with evolving client needs.

“I’m very much looking forward to continuing this journey with PCS.”

Recall that, PCS is a key provider of data to the catastrophe bond, insurance-linked securities (ILS) and industry-loss warranty (ILW) markets.

The data PCS provides is used in triggers for industry-loss index based reinsurance and retrocession risk transfer arrangements, with the company acting as a reporting and calculation agent for transactions.

PCS hires White to lead commercial strategy, names Gregory head of research & operations was published by: www.Artemis.bm
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European insurers are increasingly revisiting aggregate catastrophe cover to protect against high-frequency events, with alternative capital providers showing greater interest in supporting these structures, according to Hamish Dowlen, Managing Director and Head of EMEA at Gallagher Re.

Dowlen spoke to Artemis about the renewed demand for frequency protection across Europe, the evolution of reinsurer strategies in response, and how insurance-linked securities (ILS) markets are identifying aggregate structures as an area of growing opportunity, particularly as cedants grapple with elevated retentions and a multi-peril environment.

“Increasingly, we’re having conversations with clients who say: if the frequency in any one year gets to a level where we’re having to retain that kind of per-event loss again and again, then we’re very interested in buying something that will cap that,” Dowlen said.

He noted that the supply of aggregate capacity had declined in recent years, but market conditions are shifting.

“In the last few years, a lot of those aggregate covers fell by the wayside, either because the structures were no longer sustainable, or the pricing wasn’t at a level that cedants found acceptable. But now, we’re in a situation where the market has become a little more flexible. We’ve identified solutions that are placeable.”

While the resurgence in demand spans much of the continent, the German-speaking markets remain a focal point.

“Germany, Austria, and Switzerland traditionally bought more aggregate cover than other European markets. So they’ll be particularly interested in what’s available going forward,” Dowlen explained.

Asked about ILS involvement in these structures, Dowlen confirmed a growing role for alternative capital.

“Yes, we absolutely do see growing interest. I think all reinsurers, both traditional and ILS, are assessing where they want to play in the European markets, and aggregate is an area where they see the chance to differentiate themselves.”

While he does not expect ILS to dominate, Dowlen sees it as an important complement.

“I don’t believe ILS will become the dominant force in the European aggregate market, but I do think there’s an opportunity for it to play a greater role. I expect that will grow over the next few years.”

He also stressed that traditional capacity remains active and committed.

“There’s still a lot of traditional capacity out there from European reinsurers, as well as from Bermuda and London. Those reinsurers are very keen to participate on a traditional basis.”

Dowlen added that reinsurers are rethinking how best to support clients in today’s risk environment.

“Reinsurers are starting to look at how they can be more relevant to clients in Europe, how they can be meaningful to them and address the additional concerns they’re facing,” Dowlen concluded.

Read all of our interviews with ILS market and reinsurance sector professionals here.

ILS appetite grows for EU aggregate cat cover as cedants seek earnings protection: Gallagher Re’s Dowlen was published by: www.Artemis.bm
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Specialty insurer Beazley is enhancing its property parametric underwriting capabilities with the appointment of Swiss Re’s Stefan Wunderlich as Head of Parametric Insurance.

In his new role, Wunderlich will be based in Zurich, Switzerland, where he will report to Richard Montminy, Group Head of Property Risks.

The hire comes as Beazley continues to deepen its long-term commitment to the property market.

Since 2022, the organisation has trebled the size of its property underwriting portfolio, building a strong presence in the U.S. excess and surplus (E&S) market, expanding its specialist capabilities across Europe, and developing targeted parametric solutions to complement traditional coverage.

Wunderlich brings two decades of experience at Swiss Re, where he specialised in modelling and underwriting property and natural catastrophe risks.

Over his career, he has held a number of senior roles, including building out parametric solutions for corporate clients and, most recently, leading teams supporting corporate clients to better manage their climate risk exposures

His most recent position was Chief Product Officer, Risk Data & Services at Swiss Re Corporate Solutions.

Wunderlich also serves on the Board of Directors of insurtech emilian Ltd., where he provides strategic guidance and oversight.

“Property risks are ever more complex, requiring specialist solutions, effective modelling and underwriting expertise to deliver outcomes that meet the needs of business across the world. Parametric underwriting is a highly effective response to the risk environment, often adding more immediacy, certainty and scalability than traditional methods of property underwriting,” commented Richard Montminy, Group Head of Property Risks.

“Stefan Wunderlich, is a seasoned expert, with the leadership experience and personal commitment to this specialism and I look forward to working with him as we further build out our parametric offering,” Montminy added.

Read all of our parametric risk transfer news here. 

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Investor appetite for insurance-linked securities (ILS) continues to grow, but the asset class must evolve structurally to sustain momentum, address friction points like trapped capital, and engage a broader investor base, according to Rudy D’Cunha, Global Head of Insurance Services at Apex Group.

During a recent interview with Artemis, D’Cunha shared his perspective on how the market is maturing, where innovation is focused, and what it will take to unlock the next wave of capital.

“What ILS has done extremely well is the marriage of capital markets and insurance risk,” says D’Cunha, who has observed a healthy uptick in ILS growth and investor diversification over the past three years.

“The ILS market has seen healthy growth over the past three years, gaining more investor attention and capital inflows. There’s a mix of traditional investors who remain committed and optimistic, and new entrants, particularly family offices, attracted by the diversification benefits. Despite earlier volatility, the market has proven resilient, offering solid returns and presenting an attractive alternative in today’s uncertain macroeconomic climate.”

As capital flows broaden, so too does the appetite for more customised investment vehicles.

According to D’Cunha, structures like sidecars, quota shares, and managed accounts are gaining relevance as institutional investors seek greater control and alignment with their risk preferences.

“Yes, all of these structures continue to be relevant and are actively used. Traditional structures like funds and sidecars remain the standard and reliable mechanisms for capital deployment. However, managed accounts are seeing increased interest, particularly from larger investors seeking bespoke portfolios and more control over exposures.

“There is also a growing curiosity around digital assets as a potential capital source, though this remains largely untapped. While digital asset-backed structures haven’t yet gained meaningful traction in ILS, many industry participants are monitoring developments closely, recognizing that as use cases mature, this could represent a significant pool of alternative capital.”

D’Cunha also notes that the expansion of the asset class beyond property catastrophe risk is a key trend, with areas such as casualty, cyber, life, MGAs, parametric covers, and Lloyd’s syndicates gaining traction

“In addition to new sources of capital there are additional exposure segments being added to the existing Property Cat offerings namely Casualty, Cyber, MGAs, Life, Parametric, Lloyds Syndicates etc. all gaining substantial interest in recent years,” he explained.

“Innovation in capital structures is currently focused on extending and adapting these established models to meet the needs of a broader and more diverse investor base. Rather than reinventing the wheel, the market is working to refine and scale tried-and-tested formats to improve access, customization, and efficiency,” D’Cunha continued.

“Ultimately, the flexibility of these structures, particularly managed accounts, offers investors the ability to allocate capital in a way that aligns more closely with their individual risk appetite and strategic objectives, which is critical in today’s market environment.”

When asked what structural changes are needed to help make ILS capital more efficient, particularly in regards to trapped capital, D’Cunha stated: “Trapped capital remains a persistent issue in ILS. While some solutions are being explored like multi year contracts, accelerated contract commutations, fronting, etc. completely eliminating trapped capital is unlikely due to the fundamental nature of reinsurance contracts.

“The key is to better manage the timing of loss evaluations and payouts without altering core contract mechanics.”

To unlock more consistent capital inflows, D’Cunha stresses the need for education, transparency, and risk management.

“Greater awareness and education are essential, especially among younger investors as well as intermediaries who might overlook ILS in favour of flashier assets like crypto. Diversification should be a key component for portfolios and ILS as an asset class can offer just that. Industry events help, but more proactive outreach and transparency are needed,” D’Cunha said.

“As a service provider, at Apex we continue to significantly invest in newer technology to provide our clients and their clients greater transparency and efficiency. Risk management is also crucial; protecting downside risk, even at the expense of some returns, will build trust and encourage long-term investment,” he further explained.

New tools like blockchain-based smart contracts and tokenization may also play a role.

“Using blockchain for smart contracts, thoughtful ESG and impact investing alignment, and allowing for fractional ownership via tokenization can also be a step in the right direction,” D’Cunha added.

Lastly, D’Cunha explains how he see’s ILS managers adapting to a more complex landscape through data, infrastructure, and collaboration, especially in global ILS hubs.

“Managers are becoming more sophisticated, with better data and tools for risk modelling and capital deployment. Larger, established managers benefit from scale and infrastructure, while emerging managers need support, often provided by ecosystems like Bermuda, Cayman Islands and Luxembourg.

“Newer managers are trying to compete with larger managers, they have to understand that they’re competing with people who have years of operational history, infrastructure, and technology. One of the things Bermuda has been really good at is supporting a lot of the new managers in that space, having the right professionals, a wide support group.”

“Established managers are often locked into how they’ve been doing things, while new entrants can spot gaps and move quickly. However, it really depends on the stage the manager is at, whether they’re new or traditional, but in both cases, the investment in time, infrastructure, and identifying market gaps is what really makes the difference,” D’Cunha concludes.

Read all of our interviews with ILS market and reinsurance sector professionals here.

Rather than reinventing the wheel, ILS must refine and scale: Apex’s D’Cunha was published by: www.Artemis.bm
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Since launching its Risk Exchange platform in 2023, Accelerant Holdings has positioned itself as a conduit between institutional capital and specialty insurance risk, offering what CEO Jeff Radke describes as one of the few opportunities for investors to gain “a fair slice of the whole book of business.”

In a recent interview with Artemis, Radke outlined how the Risk Exchange, initially unveiled as part of Accelerant’s broader capital strategy, continues to evolve as a core mechanism for connecting investor capital with underwriting-led portfolios, while maintaining transparency and balance in risk sharing.

Unlike traditional models that cede only volatile layers, Accelerant’s Risk Exchange is built on pro-rata participation, allowing capital providers access to the full range of risks across its member MGAs.

“From the very beginning, Accelerant had this notion of the risk exchange where instead of acting like normal insurance companies, what we were going to be is this platform where capital can access the risk. From the very beginning that was the case,” Radke told Artemis.

Accelerant’s Capital Markets team was deliberately built to support this model, with a deep bench of structuring and insurance-linked securities (ILS) experience.

“So, we built our team around that theory. So, speaking for myself, I’ve been involved in a number of insurance securitizations, a number of cat bonds and a number of cat swaps,” Radke explained.

He pointed to the backgrounds of CFO Jay Green, formerly a senior figure on Goldman Sachs’ insurance-linked securities team, and Capital Markets lead Peter Shen, as key to Accelerant’s capital strategy.

“Why the Capital Markets team? Why did we build it that way? Because we believe that institutional investors participate in innovative ways, whether they be sidecars, which aren’t very innovative, they’re pretty inefficient, but we’re working on much better ways to do it,” Radke said.

He continued: “London Bridge is probably an improvement over a standard side car. But we’ve done a number of sidecars. We think London Bridge is in our future, and we’re working on other structures where institutional capital can come in and access that zero beta underwriting risk that is so valuable.

“And I guess what I would say is, Accelerant is one of the few spots, the Risk Exchange is one of the few places where the institutional investor is getting a fair slice of the whole book of business.”

What sets Accelerant apart, Radke argues, is its commitment to fairness and transparency in how risk is shared. “We’re not trying to cut off our volatility and just send the excess of loss exposure out,” he said.

“We’re not trying to just cede our most volatile business. What we’ve said to all of our risk capital partners, but especially the institutional investors, is you’re going to be offered an opportunity to participate across the whole book of business. A fair slice.

“And I don’t know of another place where institutional investors can get a fair slice of this low volatility speciality business. And that’s what makes it so unique, and that’s what makes it so valuable to the institutional investors,” he continued.

To further facilitate institutional investor participation, Accelerant launched Flywheel Re in August 2022, a $175 million reinsurance sidecar designed to provide multi-year risk capital to its underwriting-led specialist members.

Flywheel Re represents Accelerant’s first move to bring capital markets into its capacity provision, with institutional investors backing the sidecar.

“Flywheel is, in the vernacular, one of the sidecar reinsurance companies that we’ve created,” Radke explained.

Concluding: “Institutional investors can’t reinsure directly of course because they don’t have a license. So, what you have to do is you have to create a reinsurance company that can ensure various insurance companies, and you fund that with those institutional investors’ monthly funds. So, the capital from institutional investors comes into Flywheel, and then Flywheel supports the Risk Exchange.”

Find details of numerous reinsurance sidecar investments and transactions in our directory of collateralized reinsurance sidecars transactions.

Institutional investors get ‘fair slice’ of specialty risk via Accelerant’s Risk Exchange: CEO was published by: www.Artemis.bm
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In an interview with Artemis, Laurent Montador, Deputy CEO of French reinsurer Arundo Re, discussed the recent renewal and launch of the seventh sidecar in the 157 Re series of deals, stating that it enhances the company’s capability to allocate more capacity in targeted areas while strengthening alignment with investors.

Now in its seventh vintage, the company has sponsored a 157 Re reinsurance sidecar annually since 2019.

“The sidecar improves our capabilities to put more capacity in the area that we want, and the investors are in the same shoes as us, which is good for them and us to have a complete alignment of interest,” explained Montador.

The Deputy CEO noted that Arundo Re introduced key improvements to the 157 Re sidecar this year.

“We have worked a lot with the French commissioners and with the investors to improve the product and to improve its liquidity,” he said. “Avoiding, as much as possible, the trapped capital potential, which is good.”

The company sought to further optimise the structure, enhancing the efficiency and effectiveness of the collateralised capacity and retrocessional protection it provides.

Montador also highlighted Arundo Re’s distinctive role in the French market, noting that it remains the only company currently offering this type of sidecar structure.

“I don’t know why there isn’t more traction from other companies, but there is definitely a plan with the Treasury to make Paris a good place internationally for ILS business,” he said.

While acknowledging the more established infrastructure in Bermuda, Montador remains optimistic about France’s growing presence in the ILS market.

“I don’t think it would be as easy as what is now in Bermuda, with a clear infrastructure for many years, but it’s the beginning of something and we advocate that to the French Treasury,” he stated. “French Politics has been quite a bit difficult to follow in recent years, but it’s coming. We have shown and proved that it is possible with our successful 157 Re sidecar.”

Montador further explained that Arundo Re’s natural catastrophe exposure is ceded proportionally through the 157 Re sidecar, with claims taken only when they exceed EUR 5 million at the company’s share.

He added, “There is a specific commission which takes that into account, in order to give back some money to us to take into account the losses not greater than EUR 5 million.”

In 2022, Arundo Re announced a 22% increase in the size of its 157 Re sidecar and the addition of a new investor. The following year, the sidecar grew by over 40%, with another new investor.

In 2024, the firm stated it had taken “full advantage of its 157 Re platform to consolidate its growth trajectory.”

While the exact size of the issuances has never been disclosed, 157 Re has become a core retrocession and partnership capital structure for its sponsor.

Further details on each 157 Re sidecar issues can be found in our directory of reinsurance sidecar transactions.

157 Re reinsurance sidecar improves our capabilities: Arundo Re’s Montador was published by: www.Artemis.bm
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Analysts from KBW have said that reinsurance executives they met with recently are mostly expecting the June 1 renewals to see property catastrophe rates down around 10% on a risk-adjusted basis, but with significant variation by layer and top-layers where catastrophe bonds and industry-loss warranties (ILWs) sit to see larger declines.

The KBW analysts say the consensus was for an average risk-adjusted property catastrophe reinsurance rate decrease of around 10%, with some slightly bigger decreases expected for Florida specific risks, likely given the higher-starting point there and the perceived improvements in that market.

At the same time, the reinsurance executive view is that all-important terms, conditions and attachment points will once again remain largely unchanged.

As a result, KBW’s analysts believe underwriting profitability can remain strong, under the anticipated property cat pricing and term environment.

With around two-thirds of renewals for June 1st already placed, the expectation is that things will not change over the coming days, so this also provides a reasonable forecast for what will be seen at July 1st as well.

However, it’s worth noting that we have heard some nationwide renewals that feature more secondary peril protection being written, could see lesser declines than more hurricane exposed towers.

KBW’s analysts said, “We think current market dynamics still imply favorable market conditions (one executive characterized the current environment as a “softening hard market”) and we expect reinsurers to try to at least maintain their respective shares at June 1.”

While the averages imply a rate decline that would have been anticipated, under the well-capitalised reinsurance market conditions we see today and given where we’ve reported catastrophe bond pricing dynamics to be, there is “significant” variation in outcomes between lower and upper-layers of property catastrophe reinsurance towers, KBW said.

Lower layer pricing is expected to be flattish, while in Florida for layers above the FHCF the outcome is more likely to be rate declines of between 10% and 20%, or even more, KBW reports.

Decreases are expected to accelerate at the top of the catastrophe towers, where competition is at its keenest and insurance-linked securities (ILS) capacity from the catastrophe bond market most typically ventures.

Positively though, KBW’s analysts report that they heard there is more demand in some of the lower layers, which as this the area of the tower facing the least price erosion is positive for those deploying capital there.

Demand has continued to rise elsewhere in the risk tower too, fuelled in part by new Florida start-up insurers and greater depopulation from Florida Citizens.

However, when it comes to catastrophe bonds and ILS instruments such as industry-loss warranties (ILWs), this is where some of the steepest price declines are expected by the reinsurance executives KBW spoke with.

Interestingly, they expect 20% to 50% price declines, especially for industry-loss trigger instruments.

However, looking at our chart of cat bond spread multiples of expected loss by quarter, the average across cat bonds issued in the current quarter is actually up slightly on the first-quarter 2025 at this time, implying some pricing stability in the 144A cat bond marketplace.

While the average cat bond spread multiple for this year so far is only down 3.5% on the full-year 2024 average multiple-at-market.

It’s certainly true though that industry-loss trigger cat bonds have seen spread multiples come down more than indemnity structures, a trend that has been in place for over a year now.

While our index of industry-loss warranty (ILW) pricing, which we poll at the start of quarters, suggested declines for Q2, but not as steep as KBW’s analysts are hearing (so perhaps we will revise that down in time).

Looking ahead to the January 2026 reinsurance renewals, KBW said executives anticipate further declines unless industry capital is eroded by meaningful losses, or some other market dynamic.

“Barring a major 2025 hurricane or other catastrophe (quantified at $90-$100 billion), most executives expect price reductions (we heard anywhere from down 5% to down 15%) to persist through January 2026 renewals, reflecting persistently-elevated capacity,” the analysts explained.

Reinsurance sector capital will keep building, with returns-on-equity anticipated to add tens of billions by year-end, while further flows to the catastrophe bond and ILS fund market, as well as other third-party capital structures, are likely to build capacity further, absent major loss activity.

On executive did say some capital outflows are possible should January 2026 property catastrophe reinsurance renewal rates decline in the double-digits again.

But even then, reinsurance underwriting will still be profitable, depending on loss activity, if the all-important terms and attachments are held firm, it seems.

KBW concluded, “In our view, rate decreases persisting through January 2026 imply inevitably lower reinsurer returns, although maintained terms and conditions and stable attachment points probably still point to good-enough returns leading reinsurers to broadly maintain their respective market shares.”

Read all of our reinsurance renewals news and analysis.

June property cat renewals seen down ~10%. Jan 2026 down more without losses: KBW was published by: www.Artemis.bm
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At Artemis’ ILS NYC 2025 conference, a high-profile panel of industry leaders highlighted the growing potential of parametric insurance-linked securities (ILS) to reshape risk transfer markets.

As climate volatility intensifies and capital markets look for transparent, uncorrelated opportunities, parametric ILS is drawing increased attention, not just for peak natural catastrophe risks, but for a much broader array of exposures.

Moderated by Martin Malinow, CEO of Parameter Climate, the session titled “The Parametric ILS Investment Opportunity” brought together Sandra DeSilva President & CEO, Mythen Re Ltd.; Tanguy Touffut, CEO, Descartes Underwriting; Urs Ramseier, Executive Chairman & CIO, Twelve Securis; and Sandeep Ramachandran, Portfolio Manager, Pier61 Partners.

Ramachandran opened the discussion by pushing back on the narrow definition of parametric products often associated with traditional “cat-in-a-box” structures.

“The thing that really strikes me every time is when you talk to different people about what a parametric is, you never get the same answer,” he explained.

“Everyone has a different opinion on what a parametric product is. Most people here would given the insurance and property cat nature of the risk that we’re involved in would think as Martin referenced earlier, a parametric product is perhaps a cat in a box or a cat in a circle where you have a hurricane with various payouts at different intensities, or perhaps an earthquake structure. And while those all do fall under the category I think it’s just too narrow a focus when you really think about what a parametric product is.

“So when I take a step back, I mean, anything that has an observable and independently verifiable index can effectively be a parametric product.”

Remember you can now register for our next ILS market conference, Artemis London 2025.

Malinow echoed that broader framing, adding, “A really great way to think about parametric products is there is an underlying index that needs to be meaningful to the buyer. It needs to proxy something and there’s an overlying financial structure that those are the financial terms and and there’s seven or eight parameters that sort of make up a contract that need to be spelled out in every contract.”

Moving forward, Touffut pointed to technological advances as a key driver behind the surge in demand for parametric solutions.

“We see a big uptake in terms of parametric products, and it’s mainly linked to new technologies,” he explained.

Adding: “So typically we have more and more data sources from satellite imagery, from radars, from solars that we can use through AI, or I would say innovative algorithms to be able to get rid of the basis risk.

“For instance if we look at wildfire through satellite imagery you can have a very clear understanding if it’s burnt or not burnt, and you don’t need to send loss adjusters on the ground to assess the damage and the technologies are getting better and better, and so the scope of parametric insurance is growing as fast as the tech industry is growing.”

For DeSilva, the opportunity lies not only in new perils but also in new markets. Parametric solutions, she said, are moving beyond large clients and into commercial, retail, and high-net-worth segments.

“There’s a lot of opportunity now where parametric is going down to more of that retail, commercial, high-net-worth residential space, where there is agriculture, there is businesses that are really affected that can use parametric products as an alternative to identifying new risk,” DeSilva said.

“We are seeing huge spikes now in where insurance is willing to get into the space, take on some more of that risk, and then the reinsurance, and we’re seeing the ILS space playing a big part of that. A lot of the traditional insurers, rated paper, may already be exposed in some of the areas for the nat cat space and so it’s crucial that we have more capacity coming into the market and ILS space is good for that.”

From the investor perspective, Ramseier was clear on the benefits parametric structures offer over traditional indemnity deals.

“From our perspective, we’re very interested in parametric transactions because it resolves quite a number of problems we have, particularly in private analyst,” Ramseier said.

“So trapped collateral was mentioned, there shouldn’t be any trapped collateral in parametric transactions. Then liquidity is important. So the liquidity is predictable of parametric transactions. We know after the event there is a quite a fast payout. So we can give higher liquidity to our underlying investors into the fund.”

He continued: “So there a lot of advantages of these parametric transactions and I think it’s just a matter of time that more and more of these risks are transferred to the ILS market and I think the ILS space is the natural home for parametric risks because of these advantages.”

While still a small portion of the overall ILS market, parametric transactions are poised for significant growth. The panelists agreed that the convergence of climate urgency, technological maturity, and investor demand for efficiency could make parametric ILS a more prominent fixture in portfolios going forward.

You can watch the panel session here or in the embedded video below.

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Parametric ILS gains momentum as investors seek precision, liquidity, & diversification: ILS NYC 2025 was published by: www.Artemis.bm
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Siena Capital Group, LLC, a private investment office with a focus on special situations and that counts former Gallagher Securities trading and distribution specialist Jack Stone as a Partner, is targeting the catastrophe bond and insurance-linked securities (ILS) market with a plan to launch a daily pricing platform later this year.

Siena Capital Group was founded in April 2025 by Luke Meehan (General Partner) and Jack Stone (Partner).

Stone most recently worked at Gallagher Securities where he syndicated primary cat bond transactions and led the firm’s catastrophe bond secondary market trading desk, which, according to sources, was a particularly active trading desk at the time of Stone’s departure.

As a result, Stone has deep expertise in the analysis for and delivery of catastrophe bond marks and pricing sheets, and this is one of the first targets for Siena Capital Group, as it looks to modernise market infrastructure in insurance-linked securities (ILS).

Artemis spoke with Stone to get a deeper understanding of the new company’s plans and what the cat bond market can expect from Siena Capital as it develops its technology and platform.

The key take-away is that this ambitious start-up wants to construct enterprise grade pricing infrastructure for the insurance-linked securities (ILS) marketplace.

Stone began by explaining the problem Siena Capital aims to solve, “Despite the growth of the catastrophe bond market, institutional infrastructure has not kept pace. Daily pricing is, for all practical purposes, non-existent. Broker sheets are still distributed via Excel, assumptions are often opaque, and managers and LPs are left without a consistent framework to validate NAV, compare portfolios, or defend valuations to auditors. It’s a system that creates friction at precisely the moment this asset class should be scaling with confidence.

“We’re changing that. In Q4 2025, Siena Capital Group will launch a fully web-based, audit-defensible catastrophe bond pricing platform—built entirely in-house, from the ground up. We use no third-party applications, no external data vendors, and no outsourced tooling. Every line of logic, every data pathway, and every pricing function is purpose-built to serve one mission: to deliver the first institutional-grade pricing utility for the ILS market.”

Stone went on to say, “This is not just another broker sheet. And we are not an ILS fund. We’re building what we believe will become the spine of cat pricing – a system that can support multiple scientifically and market-supported views of risk, track every mark over time, and provide full transparency into how and why valuations move.

“While many in the market are focused on ‘matching capital to risk,’ we’ve chosen to move upstream, starting with a much harder question: how do you price risk in a way that’s consistent, transparent, and defensible? Without that, any downstream structure—no matter how flashy—lacks real integrity.”

Stone went on to explain that Siena Capital aims to address these issues it sees in a way that is aligned with the needs of catastrophe bond market constituents.

“We’re not interested in building a demo-driven startup with a splashy UI and vague promises. Without being too forward, I fear that much of the recent innovation in this space appears designed to impress venture capital firms, not actual ILS managers or LPs,” he told us. “We will deliver a platform that’s serious, institutional-grade, and deeply useful to the professionals already operating in this market. The interface and functionality will be modeled on the best-in-class financial systems that managers and allocators already trust.”

The company sees this initial platform offering as core to its strategy but hopes to move further into the insurance-linked securities (ILS) and reinsurance investments space, by providing greater transparency to the sector in the hope of fostering a more liquid marketplace.

“We’re starting with cat bonds, but there’s no reason to stop there,” Stone said. “The infrastructure we’re building is designed to expand into collateralized re, sidecars, traditional reinsurance, ILWs, and ultimately any structure where investors need to understand and trust the reference point for risk.”

Hiring is already underway, and Stone provided some hints into what the market can expect to see in time.

“Our CTO brings more than a decade of experience leading engineering at one of the world’s largest financial technology platforms, with deep background in data architecture at global financial institutions. He will be leading a pod of talented engineers this summer as we run the sprint to Q4 launch,” Stone further stated. “He’s helping us build with the discipline and scale this market has long deserved, but has never had. When we formally introduce our team this summer, I believe our clients will immediately understand how seriously Siena Capital has invested in delivering them a best-in-class product. We cannot emphasise enough that we are sparing no expense to do this the right way, from the ground up.”

Adding that, “Importantly, we’re doing this without the interference of outside venture capital or the drag of corporate bureaucracy. This summer, we’re quietly testing the marks with a small group of long-standing ILS managers and allocators–investors who’ve been hungry for better pricing, willing to pay for it, and supportive of this initiative from the very beginning. Their feedback is directly shaping our rollout. Over the next 2-3 years, I am optimistic that managers who adopt our infrastructure will realise tremendous operational efficiencies, which is especially critical as some LPs become more fee-sensitive.”

Siena Capital has long-term ambitions to write primary personal and commercial lines insurance, which is why they have made their first investment with the aim of marshalling more LP capital to existing ILS managers.

Stone told Artemis, “Our ultimate goal is simple: to lower the cost of insurance for everybody.

“Looking ahead to the next five years, my business partner and I expect to personally capitalise U.S. admitted and E&S balance sheets, underwrite along the same infrastructure spine, and cede slices of risk into the ILS market, monitoring everything in real-time, at policy-level granularity.

“This is the future of the (re)insurance industry: where capital and risk meet transparently, dynamically, and without layers of inefficiency. So, of course we are interested in connecting risk to capital, just not yet.

“Getting tech and infrastructure right is the challenging part, and it’s the critical first step. Hiring top tier underwriting talent and managing the capital are the easy and fun parts, respectively.”

Siena Capital targets cat bond market with initial plan to launch daily pricing platform was published by: www.Artemis.bm
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