Archive for April, 2009

Pension funds have typically been conservative with where they choose to invest their funds. News has emerged today that one of the more conservative funds in the UK has decided to invest a 17.5% portion of it’s assets into hedge funds and alternative assets which will include insurance-linked securities. Berkshire County Council has a pension […]

The catastrophe bond market issuers and investors will all be keeping a watchful eye on the development of the swine flu outbreak with some nervousness. Why you might wonder, given that the vast majority of our coverage of the catastrophe bond market relates to natural disasters such as windstorms and earthquakes? Well, there is another […]

Weatherbill have completed a novel weather insurance cover for the organisers of Belgium’s largest outdoor culinary festival. Taste of Antwerp, in it’s fifth year, takes place in August. It’s essentially a food festival at which renowned chefs and caterers provide the entertainment in the form of small plates of their food to the thousands who […]

We’re delighted to see that Guy Carpenter are continuing to embrace the digital channel to publish their latest catastrophe bond market update. The 1st quarter 2009 update is available to view now on their GCCapitalIdeas blog. The conclusion is that the 1st quarter has seen a healthy start to the year for cat bonds but […]

U.S. specialty insurer Assurant is on the verge of closing a $150m catastrophe bond deal under the Cayman islands based special purpose vehicle Ibis Re. The deal will be Assurants first transaction in the catastrophe bond market. The deal will protect some of Assurant’s subsidiaries (including American Security Insurance Co. and American Bankers Insurance Co.) […]

Munich Re and Tokio Marine Nichido Fire have closed a private catastrophe swap deal based on the Risk Management Solutions (RMS) Paradex-Europe Windstorm industry loss index. This transaction brings the total notional amount of risk transferred using Paradex to in excess of $250m. Having indices of losses available (via third-party sources) which can be utilised […]

Below is a copy of a press release received while I was away regarding the appointment of the Bank of New York Mellon as trustee and paying agent for the Liberty Mutual Mystic Re II catastrophe bond deal. NEW YORK, April 13 – The Bank of New York Mellon (NYSE: BK) has been appointed trustee, […]

Pentelia Capital Management (Bermuda) Ltd. and Mitsubishi Corporation have launched a joint venture titled Pentelia Diamond Capital Management who will look after a new catastrophe bond and insurance linked security fund which we hear will be called Eolia Diamond Ltd. The tie up with Mitsubishi has allowed Pentelia to access the Japanese market for capital […]

The catastrophe bond market has got off to a good start this year after the issues of 2008. In a further sign of the increasing health and confidence in the issuance of catastrophe linked securities, it’s emerged today that the recent Blue Fin Ltd. deal from Allianz Argos 14 GmbH has increased in size. This […]

AIR Worldwide has announced that it has now modeled the risks on over $10b worth of catastrophe bonds since the market took off in 1996. They also claim to have modeled the risks on over 56% of the deals struck since 2007. During 2008 they provided services to 70% of the catastrophe bond capital issued […]