INSURANCE TECHNOLOGY
Balance RE | September 01, 2021
Balance Re, the life reinsurance start-up specialised in quantitative asset-liability management, today announced it has raised $10m in Series A funding from leading financial services investor Anthemis Group, with participation from Global Brain and the company's existing investors, Roland Berger Industries GmbH and Talabot Finance.
Balance Re offers comprehensive reinsurance solutions to life insurance companies and pension funds to support capital management related to their retirement and saving products. The Series A investment will be used to further develop Balance Re's proprietary asset-liability management technology and to support its fully licensed German reinsurance company based in Cologne.
In Balance Re's launch market, Germany, Solvency II's transitional measures represent on average ca. 150 percentage points of life insurers' solvency capital ratios. Balance Re's technology-first and data-driven approach to reinsurance instead enables its clients to release capital to fund growth, support product repositioning and improve (or regain) a competitive advantage. Thanks to real-time risk management capabilities, Balance Re is the first reinsurer able to offer to its clients easy-to-implement and cost-efficient reinsurance solutions which transfer the challenging interactions of financial and insurance risks.
Balance Re's new shareholders, Anthemis and Global Brain, bring in-depth knowledge of the insurance sector and expertise in technologies dedicated to the financial industry, ideally complementing the experience of Balance Re's initial investors rooted in investment management and corporate strategy.
Lucian Rautu and Michel Gauer, the founders of Balance Re, commented: "We are delighted to welcome Anthemis and Global Brain in the capital of Balance Re and at the Board. Their deep industry knowledge and capacity to take an "outside-of-the-box" approach to venture investments in the insurance space make them the perfect partners to disrupt the life reinsurance market".
Matthew Jones, Managing Director at Anthemis, said "Balance Re's team and their technology reflect the complex interactions between actuarial, financial, accounting and regulatory matters. Balance Re's coverage is designed to help clients reach their strategic goals whilst also keeping the interests of their policyholders in mind – we're excited to see them drive much-needed change in the life reinsurance sector."
Naoki Kamimaeda, Partner at Global Brain, said "We believe that the technology developed by the Balance Re team has far reaching applications beyond life reinsurance and Europe. We are enthusiastic to join them at this important stage of the journey and look forward to helping them realise their vision to improve the management of long-term insurance and pension liabilities globally."
About Balance Re
Balance Re tackles one of the most fascinating problems of life insurance: managing the complex interactions between insurance and financial risks. These problems exist in a multifaceted environment spanning actuarial, financial, accounting, and regulatory matters. To operate at the crossroad of so many fields, Balance Re takes down the cultural silos between insurance, investment, and technology to blend the expertise required to solve its clients' needs for truly comprehensive risk transfer.
About Anthemis
Anthemis cultivates change in financial services by investing in, growing, and sustaining businesses committed to improving the world. We are founded on three guiding principles — authentic collaboration, virtuous cycle outcomes, and diversity and inclusivity and our deep understanding of markets and models, passion for emerging technology and values inspire everything we do. By creating fertile ground for a diverse group of start-ups, investors, entrepreneurs, institutions, academics, and visionaries to converge, we believe we can solve the financial services world's most pressing challenges faster, better and for the benefit of all.
About Global Brain
Global Brain is an early-stage venture capital firm based in Tokyo. It supports start-ups that tackle pressing problems, create innovation, and contribute to the stimulation of the Japanese economy and beyond. Its high-achieving, experienced professionals identify excellent start-ups through multiple global locations in Europe, US and APAC, and provide hands-on growth support. Global Brain's total asset under management is over US$1 billion, making it the largest domestic independent venture capital firm.
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CORE INSURANCE
Midwest Holding Inc. | January 13, 2022
Midwest Holding Inc. (NASDAQ: MDWT), a technology-enabled, services-oriented annuity platform, announced today that its subsidiary American Life & Security (ALSC) will begin offering exclusively to American Life's Fixed Index Annuity policy holders the Goldman Sachs Xenith Index.
The Goldman Sachs Xenith Index is a multi-asset strategy that uses the anticipated macro regime, as identified by a leading economic indicator, to make asset allocations. By using a leading economic indicator, the Goldman Sachs Xenith Index differs from indices that rely on a backward-looking methodology alone. Instead of relying purely on the S&P 500 Index for exposure to U.S. equities, the index employs an intraday overlay that can reduce equity exposure based on intra-day trading "signals". As a result, the strategy incorporates real-time market movements, in addition to other factors, in its rules-based methodology.
Depending on the prevailing market regime, the Goldman Sachs Xenith Index also provides commodity exposure by switching between copper and gold based on anticipated economic growth. In addition, regardless of the economic regime, the Goldman Sachs Xenith Index provides constant exposure to a long-short strategy taking positions on different points of the commodity curve in an attempt to capture performance that may be less correlated to other asset classes.
"The Goldman Sachs Xenith Index is quite meaningful to Midwest Holding and American Life as we are one of just a few select insurance providers offering this type of index. We are glad to be positioned front and center, as we collectively bring a new opportunity with strong potential to our investors,"
- Midwest Holding President and Chief Investment Officer Mike Minnich.
"Goldman Sachs is pleased to license the Goldman Sachs Xenith Index to American Life & Security. This is our first index licensing engagement with American Life and we are excited about working with their team"
- Pratik Pareek, Head of Insurance Equity Derivative Sales at Goldman Sachs.
About Midwest Holding Inc.
Midwest Holding Inc. is a technology-enabled, services-oriented annuity platform. Midwest designs and develops in-demand life and annuity products that are distributed through independent distribution channels, to a large and growing demographic of U.S. retirees. Midwest originates, manages and transfers these annuities through reinsurance arrangements to asset managers and other third-party investors, who are actively seeking these financially attractive products. Midwest also provides the operational and regulatory infrastructure and expertise to enable asset managers and third-party investors to form, capitalize and manage their own reinsurance capital vehicles.
About American Life & Security Corp.
American Life & Security Corp. is a wholly owned subsidiary of Midwest Holding Inc. In 2018, the company was recapitalized and reimagined by a team of seasoned insurance, technology and investment experts with a new purpose - build a platform on modern technology with simplicity, transparency and cost efficiency to remedy inefficiencies in the life and annuity industry.
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RISK MANAGEMENT
AXA XL | December 07, 2021
AXA XL has added new Excess & Surplus (E&S) casualty insurance underwriting expertise with the addition of Matthew Moses as Senior Underwriter in New York and Joshua Steele as Senior Underwriter in Scottsdale, Arizona.
"Given the current hard market conditions in admitted markets and the challenges brought on by pandemic, more severe Cat events, nuclear verdicts, and overall economic strains, the E&S market continues to thrive. We've seen a substantial uptick in submissions and plenty of opportunities to grow. That's why we're excited to welcome seasoned underwriters like Matt and Joshua who bring more than two decades of underwriting experience to our team and are ready to hit-the-ground running to help us address our clients' most challenging primary casualty risks."
- Ankur Chokshi, AXA XL's head of E&S Primary Casualty
With more than 10 years of underwriting experience, Mr. Moses joins AXA XL from CapSpecialty where focused his underwriting activities on addressing the E&S casualty needs of the Construction industry. Prior to CapSpecialty, he was at Admiral Insurance group, working in the Midwest, and building up Admiral's office from ground up. He is a graduate of Indiana University.
Mr. Steele joins AXA XL's E&S team from AmTrust. In this newly created role based in AXA XL's West Zone, Mr. Steele will address the needs of wholesale brokers and clients throughout the Southwest. During his 10+ year-career in the insurance industry, he has held underwriting positions with Nationwide, Liberty Mutual and Travellers. He is a graduate of Georgia State University.
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