Your weekly re/insurance round-up, ending January 12th 2024

Industry news over the past week had a focus on the Japan earthquake, with Moody's RMS releasing an insured losses estimate of up to $6bn.?

Verisk also provided a loss estimate for the event, although the exclusion of certain?factors led to a lower range of up to $3.3bn.?

Fitch said that losses from the quake?are “likely to be small”, with “no major impact” on Japanese non-life insurers’ earnings.

There was some significant M&A news this week, including R&Q's announcement of shareholder approval for the sale of its Accredited business.?

Elsewhere,?HDI?Global Specialty?acquired Griffin Highline Capital LLC’s share in MGA Falcon Risk Holdings LLC.?

Munich Re highlighted insured losses of $58 billion ?from?thunderstorms in North America and Europe in 2023, while analysts at JP Morgan said Q4'23 nat cat losses will be below-average.?

Reinsurance renewal and market outlook commentary also continued this week, including a ROL update from Guy Carpenter , and AM Best's?prediction that?reinsurance capital will return to $561 billion in 2024.

The Florida OIR released a new report mid-week, which revealed a?decline in the percentage of nationwide homeowners’ lawsuits opened in Florida, as well as the purchase of more reinsurance in 2023.

This week also saw a number of high profile appointments announced, including a new CEO at PartnerRe , a promotion at Gallagher Re , and a new hire at Somerset Re .

Finally, an update from AM Best revealed that?UnitedHealth Group Incorporated remains the world's largest insurer .?

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!