Your weekly re/insurance round-up, ending August 18th 2023

This week, the news was dominated by the devasting wildfires which impacted the island of Maui, Hawaii, alongside a host of industry developments and updates on the Vesttoo saga.

Bloomberg Intelligence?has estimated that the insurance industry loss from the Maui wildfires will fall between $2.5 - $4.5bn, which gives us an insured loss mid-point of $3.5bn.

Meanwhile,?Karen Clark & Company's estimate for insured property loss from the event currently stands at $3.2bn.

In other developments,?U.S. primary insurer?Allstate?pegged its cat losses for July at $313m, while?PERILS AG?bumped up its insured loss estimate for Cyclone Gabrielle to NZ $2.018bn.

New research from the?Actuaries Institute?revealed that Australian home insurance premiums have risen 28% YoY, and China's?National Financial Regulatory Administration?disclosed that claims linked to the country's recent floods have now reached 260,600.

Elsewhere,?S&P revised?Swiss Re's rating outlook to stable from negative, and?Munich Re's to positive from stable, citing improved underwriting performance and?further earnings diversification, respectively.

Turning to the Vesttoo saga,?AM Best?has observed that the allegations of fraudulent LOCs highlight the importance of carefully managing counterparty credit risk.

Vesttoo?also filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection in the U.S. this week and has since confirmed that both the federal court in New York and the courts in Israel have removed temporary restraining orders freezing its assets.

As for major appointments,?SiriusPoint?named Anthony Shapella as Deputy Chief Underwriting Officer, while?AXA XL?placed Vito Raimondi as Head of its U.S. Central Zone.

Aon?strengthened its Risk Capital business with new leaders, and?Chubb?appointed Edward Kopp as Regional President, Far East.

We’ll continue to update you with more coverage on the major developments from this week, while also keeping up with the regular news coming out of the re/insurance industry.

We hope all our readers stay safe and well this weekend!