Archive for January, 2013

The latest report on the 2012 catastrophe bond and insurance-linked securities market arrived with us this morning from Willis Capital Markets & Advisory (WCMA), the division of global insurance broker Willis which deals with cat bond structures and capital market risk transfer products. The report says that while 2012 was a great year for primary […]

2012 was a unique year in the insurance-linked securities and catastrophe bond issuance market, with near record issuance, the market reaching a record size, new sponsors coming to market and repeat sponsors continuing to demonstrate their comfort with and commitment to ILS and cat bonds for risk transfer. As well as a healthy issuance side […]

The global penetration of microinsurance cover is set to double from the 500m people currently covered to more than 1 billion by 2020, according to a statement from the Microinsurance Network. Governments, insurers and reinsurers are all expected to broaden he geographic scope and range of products as they seek to make insurance products available […]

The insurance-linked securities (ILS) fund management operation backed by German reinsurer Hannover Re is now up and running and open to investors. Luxembourg based asset management firm Leine Investment SICAV-SIF and managing partner Leine Investment General Partner S.à r.l. were established last year as 100% subsidiaries of Hannover Re with the aim of launching ILS funds […]

The Microinsurance Catastrophe Risk Organisation (MiCRO), a specialty reinsurance organisation established to provide the backing for microinsurance products through microfinance institutions in Haiti, has received $1.96m in funding from the IFC (International Finance Corporation), a member of the World Bank Group. The award includes a $1.7 million performance-based grant and $260,000 in technical assistance from […]

The insurance-linked securities and catastrophe bond market experienced a banner year in 2012, according to the latest market update report published today by reinsurer Swiss Re. As well as being a banner year, with the second highest issuance on record of $6.3 billion, 2012 was unique according to the reinsurer as the market was tested […]

Some of the latest pricing indications for secondary catastrophe bonds show that investors have real concerns that the final industry loss total from hurricane Sandy could be sufficiently high to trigger the Successor X Ltd. (Series 2011-3) Class V-F4 notes. The Successor notes are the last cat bond which is considered seriously at risk of […]

Bermuda based insurance and reinsurance services firm Kalista Global which has a focus on the insurance-linked securities, catastrophe bond, parametric re/insurance and alternative reinsurance sectors, has launched a new product offering which it is calling ENSO-based Parametric Cover (EPC for short). The parametric product utilises sea surface temperature readings to create an index which is […]

Here’s some more evidence of the increasing interest that large pension funds are showing in the catastrophe bond, insurance-linked securities and reinsurance-linked investment space. The New Zealand Superannuation Fund, a fund for the state-run retirement benefit (pension) available to all working New Zealanders, already has an allocation to cat bonds in its alternative investment portfolio […]

The Skyline Re Ltd. (Series 2013-1) private catastrophe bond placement, which we first wrote about back in December here, has been successfully completed. The transaction upsized from the $50m it was initially marketed at to complete at $72m of limit ($61.2m of notes issued). Private cat bond specialist Towers Watson Capital Markets (TWCM) structured, arranged and placed […]