State Farm’s $1.5B Merna Re Cat Bond Benchmarks Aggregate ILS Protection
State Farm cat bond aggregate protection: $1.5B Merna Re 2026-1 raises total ILS capital to $4.5B — Class A at 6.25%, Class B at…
Author
Nicolas Martin
Senior reporter at InsuraBeat covering commercial and property & casualty markets, M&A, and underwriting performance across Europe and North America. Twelve years in the industry: started as an analyst on the broker side at a global reinsurance intermediary placing casualty and specialty risks for European corporates, then five years on the underwriting side at a Tier-1 European insurer, last managing D&O and cyber portfolios. Holds a Master in Reinsurance Economics and Capital Markets from the Kwang-Hwa Institute of Financial Sciences (Taipei) and is a CFA charterholder. Writes from Paris, on US morning markets.
Galapagos Capital’s R$126M LRS Sets New Benchmark for Brazil’s ILS Regime
Brazil ILS Galapagos Capital R$126M milestone: the fourth LRS issuance under Brazil's domestic ILS regime and the first with institutional syndication marks the maturation…
Acrisure Cuts 2,250 Jobs as AI Automation Reshapes the Broker Workforce
Acrisure AI job cuts hit 2,250 employees in May 2026 — 11% of the global workforce — as CEO Greg Williams cites AI and…
US P&C Logs Best Q1 Underwriting Margin in 25 Years — With a Soft-Market Warning Baked In
US P&C underwriting profit Q1 2026 hit a 25-year high with a combined ratio of 89.5, validating hard-market discipline — but premium declines across…
Aon Names New EMEA Co-CEOs as Page and Kielty Step Down After the NFP Integration Era
Aon EMEA leadership rotates on June 1, 2026: Buechter and Kus take over from Page and Kielty as new co-CEOs, with Q1 revenue of…
Pakistan Tables Insurance Bill 2026 to Break a 25-Year Regulatory Standstill
Pakistan Insurance Bill 2026 replaces a 25-year ordinance, enabling parametric cover, foreign branch entry, and RBC rules for a market at 0.7% of GDP.
Africa Re at Kigali CEO Forum: 80% of African Disaster Losses Go Uninsured
Africa Re: 80%+ of Africa's catastrophe losses are uninsured and $32 billion in economic damage went uncovered between 2019 and 2023, per Kigali CEO…
Willis and Global Parametrics Deliver Vietnam Coffee Parametric Payout, Signalling APAC Agricultural Risk Has Gone Mainstream
Parametric insurance Vietnam coffee milestone: Willis and Global Parametrics confirm two payouts to Central Highlands farmers — one on drought, one on Typhoon Kalmaegi…
California FAIR Plan’s 29% Rate Hike Lays Bare the Structural Failure of Regulated Residual Markets
California FAIR Plan rate hike of 29.1% is approved for October 2026 after $2.9B–$4B in wildfire losses; 668,600 policies and $599B in exposure confirm…
World Bank Issues $200M Jamaica Hurricane Bond to Anchor Caribbean Sovereign Risk Pool
Jamaica's third sovereign cat bond closes oversubscribed at a 6.75% coupon, signaling that Caribbean parametric structures have matured into a stable ILS asset class.