The traditional reinsurance market is expected to present heightened competition to insurance-linked securities (ILS) in 2026, but investor inflows, a strong maturities schedule, and retained earnings should keep ILS capital levels healthy and catastrophe bond pricing attractive to cedents, executives from GC Securities told Artemis.During an interview around the start of this year, Cory Anger and Geoff Sweitzer, Managing Director’s at GC Securities, the capital markets and ILS specialist unit of reinsurance broker Guy Carpenter, shared their outlook for the catastrophe bond and ILS sector for 2026. With 2025 being a particularly exceptional year for the ILS market, momentum across…
Author: Awais
Greece and Malta have emerged as the main obstacle to a European Union proposal to replace a Russian oil price cap with a ban on the services needed to ship the fuel. The two southern European countries raised concerns about the move at an EU ambassadors’ meeting on Monday where the bloc’s latest sanctions package was presented, according to people familiar with the matter. They expressed fears that the switch may affect Europe’s shipping industry and energy prices, said the people, who spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss private deliberations. Both nations also asked for clarifications on proposals to…
Shreveport, Louisiana-based Minden Seafood, LLC, and Dorcheat Seafood, LLC, operators of restaurants Minden Seafood and Dorcheat Seafood and Grill, will pay a former employee $34,000 in back pay and emotional distress damages to settle a sexual harassment lawsuit filed by the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC), the federal agency announced. According to the EEOC’s lawsuit, a male cook at Minden Seafood repeatedly sexually harassed a female cashier by making unwanted and inappropriate sexually suggestive comments to her, propositioning her, and following her into the women’s bathroom, where he exposed himself to her. She reported the cook’s behavior to a…
President Donald Trump threatened to block the opening of a new bridge that connects Michigan and Ontario until the US was given compensation and ownership of half of it, saying he’d start negotiations immediately. “I will not allow this bridge to open until the United States is fully compensated for everything we have given them, and also, importantly, Canada treats the United States with the Fairness and Respect that we deserve,” Trump said on social media Monday. “We will start negotiations, IMMEDIATELY. With all that we have given them, we should own, perhaps, at least one half of this asset,”…
The EPA has identified the chemical compound spilled in Garnett, Kansas, on Dec. 31, 2025. Recent laboratory analysis corroborates EPA’s preliminary field screening results with a “high level of confidence” that the corrosive substance was sodium aluminate, the agency said. Field tests were conducted early in the response and identified the material as a strong base with a pH level of 14. Strong bases are reactive chemicals that undergo various chemical changes when they are exposed to the elements. These characteristics made collecting a pure sample for broad-spectrum analysis difficult. The laboratory conducting the analysis was able to account for…
It outlines new takeout rules for commercial policies
A Texas judge’s move to strike down a state law blacklisting “woke” financial firms, including BlackRock and HSBC, that used environmental, social or governance factors in investment decisions will likely drive a broader push to repeal so-called “anti-ESG” laws in other states, analysts said. Texas lawmakers passed the Energy Discrimination Elimination Act in 2021, requiring state agencies and local authorities to break ties with and divest the shares of companies that refused to invest in some oil and gas companies, targeting the likes of BNP Paribas and Danske Bank on its list. About 14 other states followed suit. A federal…
On January 1, 2026, the Center for Medicare & Medicaid Innovation (CMMI) launched the Wasteful and Inappropriate Service Reduction (WISeR) Model that establishes new prior authorization requirements in traditional Medicare. The model tests the use of technologies such as artificial intelligence to review the appropriateness of select services in six states over a six-year trial period. Prior authorization requirements are used routinely by Medicare Advantage plans and other private insurers, but rarely in traditional Medicare. Prior authorization aims to reduce unnecessary or inappropriate utilization of health care services, but it can also lead to delays and denials of needed medical…
South Carolina’s Safe Home Mitigation Program today, Feb. 10, began accepting applications for a new round of funding for resiliency grants. The program, which provides up to $6,000 in matching grants and up to $7,500 in non-matching grants, received additional funding from state lawmakers last year, making almost $9 million available for wind mitigation projects, according to news reports. More than 600 South Carolinians received grants in 2025 from the program, news sites reported. Approved homeowners can use the grants for window and door protection, roof-to-wall connections, and for new roofs that meet the Institute for Home and Business Safety’s…
Liberty Mutual Group Inc.’s asset-management arm agreed to back Ara Partners’ infrastructure and energy strategies, in the latest partnership between an insurer and an alternative investment firm. The collaboration includes an anchor commitment to Ara’s new energy fund as well as capital for existing and future investments, according to Charley Poole, head of energy and infrastructure at Liberty Mutual Investments, which invests $117 billion worldwide on behalf of the insurer. He declined to disclose the size of the Ara commitment. “We view investments through a perpetual lens and can support businesses over time,” Poole said. Houston-based Ara, which oversees about…
In this edition of Insurance Business TV, Aspen’s Rebecca Gitig talks how those once-in-a-decade events have now, in many cases, become annual events. She highlights events that have stood out in recent years and why the sector needs to adjust to more than just property catastrophes.
US insurance broker stocks were pummeled Monday as the launch of an artificial intelligence tool from privately held online insurance shopping platform Insurify sparked fears about the industry facing disruption. The S&P 500 Insurance index closed down 3.9%, in its biggest drop since October. Insurance broker Willis Towers Watson PLC was the worst performer in the group, closing 12% lower and suffering its worst trading session since November 2008. Arthur J Gallagher & Co. followed with a 9.9% decline and Aon PLC fell 9.3%. “The insurance broker stocks are getting hammered,” Bloomberg Intelligence’s insurance analyst Matthew Palazola said, noting “there…
The US labor board is abandoning a yearslong legal battle against Elon Musk’s SpaceX and signaling it will steer clear of future cases against the company. Two years after issuing a complaint accusing the aerospace firm of firing eight engineers because of their involvement in an open letter criticizing Musk, the National Labor Relations Board said it was dismissing the case. In a letter to the attorneys of the former employees, the labor board cited a recent opinion issued by a separate agency, the National Mediation Board, arguing that SpaceX engineers belonged under its jurisdiction rather than the NLRB’s. “Accordingly,…
The U.S. Chemical Safety and Hazard Investigation Board (CSB) is opening an investigation into the fatal chemical release that occurred on January 27, 2026, at the Woodland Pulp facility in Baileyville, Maine. The incident at the pulp production facility resulted in the death of one person, a 20-year old University of Maine student who was a intern at the facility. Nine other workers were injured, two of them seriously. According to initial information submitted by the company, the incident may have involved the mixing of concentrated sulfuric acid with sulfurous compounds in an enclosed process sewer, resulting in the generation…