Archive for March, 2009

WeatherBill has announced a first in the weather derivative and weather insurance marketplace with the release of a new platform WeatherBill White Label. The white label solution offers a completely bespoke platform that can power third party branded weather insurance and weather derivative programs. The platform automates weather coverage pricing, transaction processing, and risk management […]

I’m very proud to say that the Artemis.bm blog hit a milestone this week as it is now one year old! It’s been a busy year of ups and downs in the marketplace with many newsworthy items for us to comment on. We’d like to thank all of our readers, colleagues and partners for their […]

Following on from Tuesdays news that Standard & Poor’s had placed the notes of the Blue Coast Ltd. catastrophe bond onto CreditWatch negative, S&P have now announced that the three tranches have been downgraded. Blue Coast is a 2008 deal that provides Allianz Risk Transfer with cover against U.S. hurricanes on certain coastal counties of […]

The Caribbean Catastrophe Risk Insurance Facility (CCRIF) has received funding for the 2009 hurricane season from the European Union. The EU has put forwards €12.5m to help shore up the fund in case of a disaster and allow it to pay claims more easily. The cat facilities reserve pool now consists of many entities including […]

Blue Fin Ltd. a special purpose vehicle incorporated in the Cayman Islands is marketing a new catastrophe bond deal on behalf of Allianz Argos 14 GmbH. Allianz is entering into this deal to provide itself with a source of multi-year reinsurance for certain U.S. hurricanes and earthquakes. This 3 year, $150m deal has been given […]

Standard & Poor’s have placed the notes of the Blue Coast Ltd catastrophe bond onto CreditWatch negative due to the possibility of losses from hurricanes Gustav and Ike. Blue Coast provides Allianz Risk Transfer with cover against U.S. landfalling hurricanes until December 2010 (with an option to extend a further 24 months), the deal was […]

The Chicago Mercantile Exchange recently launched 2nd event Florida and Gulf Coast hurricane option contracts to the trading community. Already, Tradition have announced through a press release that the market is open for business as their U.S. reinsurance division Tradition Re have brokered the first deal on these new 2nd event contracts. The deal, a […]

Weatherbill have announced another of their Sunshine Guaranteed weather refund promotion deals. The latest deal is with the destination marketing organisation for Victoria, British Columbia; Tourism Victoria. The deal offers customers who book a vacation through Tourism Victoria for travel during April a $500 cash-back refund should they experience more than 1.25cm of rain in […]

UK insurer Norwich Union has entered into a deal with Royal Bank of Scotland and Partner Re to transfer £475m of longevity related risks to the capital markets through what is essentially a longevity swap. The transaction will provide cover for these annuity/pension related risks up to 2018. Transferring these longevity risks to the capital […]

Two new pieces of legislation are being put forwards in Texas in an attempt to solve the problems the Texas Windstorm Insurance Association (TWIA) is facing now it’s reserves have been depleted by Hurricane Ike. 730,000 claims were filed in the three months after Hurricane Ike struck Texas, about 90% of those claims have now […]