Howden Re launches Novark to bring capital markets infrastructure to insurance risk

Howden Re has used the Monte Carlo RVS 2026 to launch Novark, an insurance management and securities administration platform designed to make insurance risk more accessible to institutional capital.

The reinsurance broker said Novark is the first platform to provide near real-time data updates on insurance investments, giving investors greater transparency and control while helping insurers and reinsurers manage third-party capital more efficiently.

The launch is intended to address what Howden Re described as a growing disconnect between the sophistication of alternative capital structures and the infrastructure supporting them.

Insurance-linked securities (ILS) and other forms of alternative capital have become an increasingly important source of reinsurance capacity, but Howden Re said information, processes and data remain fragmented across market participants and systems.

Novark is designed to bring those functions into a single digital environment.

Razi Naqvi, currently chief innovation officer at Howden Re, is leading development and implementation of the platform.

“Insurance risk has developed into an increasingly important institutional asset class, but the infrastructure around it has not evolved at the same pace,” he said.

“If we want to attract more capital into the market, investors need the transparency, control and confidence they expect when investing elsewhere.”

Naqvi added: “Novark brings that capital markets experience to insurance providing the first near real-time data on how their insurance investments are performing.

“Investors should be able to see what is happening to their investment, understand it and act on it.”

The platform will operate through Novark Management, a Bermuda incorporated insurance management and securities administration company currently known as Alternative Risk Management Bermuda.

It will support institutional investors, ILS funds, insurers, reinsurers, brokers and other market participants, while drawing on Howden’s wider reinsurance, analytics, ILS, capital markets and advisory capabilities.

Alex Bridges, CEO of Howden Re Bermuda, said: “Alternative capital is already fundamental to the reinsurance market, but there is a much bigger opportunity if we can make insurance risk easier for institutional investors to access, understand and manage.

“Bermuda is the natural place to build it. This is where reinsurance, ILS and institutional capital already come together, and Novark gives us an opportunity to help take that convergence to the next stage.”