Archive for May, 2012

Our regular readers might remember that we wrote about a paper that the International Association of Insurance Supervisors (IAIS) had published in November which provided their thoughts on how the re/insurance industry interacts with the wider financial markets. The paper discussed systemic risk from re/insurers and identified insurance-linked securities and catastrophe bonds as instruments that […]

Law firm Willkie Farr & Gallagher have published a client memo which pertains to insurance-linked securities and the rules regarding fraud under the Securities Exchange Act of 1934 Section 10(b) and particularly Rule 10b-5. Willkie Farr & Gallagher recently bolstered their ILS and reinsurance legal team with the hire of a number of partners from […]

According to data from hedge fund news and information provider Opalesque, ‘alternative alternatives’ investment funds were largely down during the month of April. Their Opalesque A Square Fund Database clocked a general decline of 0.41% over the month. Largely the losses came from commodity sectors among the 699 single and multi-manager funds that they track. […]

Lack of investment in coast defences combined with a changing climate means that the average annual cost of flooding in England and Wales has risen to £1 billion according to a report referenced in the Independent newspaper. Over the next 30 years the cost of flood events in the UK will continue to rise as […]

Reinsurer Swiss Re has announced that it is going to sell off its U.S. Admin Re® business for $600m in cash as it seeks to unlock capital that is tied up in it. Total cash proceeds from the sale will be $900m after a pre-closing dividend. Admin Re provides risk and capital management solutions by […]

The increasing interest that pension funds around the world are showing in the catastrophe bond and insurance-linked security assets classes will be nothing new to our readers. It’s been widely accepted that much of the capital flowing into the insurance-linked and reinsurance-linked investment space (including catastrophe bonds) has been sourced from institutional pension fund investment […]

A number of damaging earthquake aftershocks struck northern Italy yesterday in the same area which was hit by a magnitude 6.0 quake just over a week ago on the 20th May. Yesterday saw an M5.8 earthquake occur followed by two M4.7 aftershocks, then an M5.4 and an M5.1 according to the USGS information. After the […]

Nuclear Electric Insurance Ltd., a mutual insurance company who specialise in providing insurance for electrical utilities, have increased their investment allocation to insurance-linked securities (specifically catastrophe bonds) through ILS investment manager Anchor Risk Advisors. Nuclear Electric Insurance were one of Anchor’s initial investors and by growing their allocation to the sector are showing their commitment […]

Catastrophe bonds are having a great year so far with issuance hitting record levels in the first quarter and extremely healthy in Q2, details on all the cat bond deals to come to market can be found in our Deal Directory. The wider financial press has been complementary about this growing market and cat bonds […]

Law firm Dewey & LeBoeuf has filed for chapter 11 bankruptcy after failing to find a merger partner and will now seek to liquidate its business according to news reports. It signals the end of the saga for the stricken law firm and will be the largest law firm collapse in history. Rumours had been […]