Crystal Credit Ltd. still likely to default

March 7, 2010

Standard & Poor’s has delivered its latest update on the Crystal Credit Ltd. transaction which transferred a portfolio of Swiss Re’s credit reinsurance treaty risk to the capital markets via an insurance linked securitization. Losses on those treaties have been high and the transaction has already had its ratings downgraded by S&P. They’ve been delivering [...]

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Tradition Re hedges Florida hurricane risk using Dutch auction

March 4, 2010

Tradition Re has announced the completion of the first Dutch auction for Florida hurricane windstorm risks. The deal allowed an unnamed reinsurer to hedge it’s hurricane exposure for the year and we believe this is the first time a Dutch auction has been used for this purpose within the reinsurance market.

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Chile quake to be hugely costly but no risk to cat bonds

March 4, 2010

While the recent earthquake in Chile is going to be hugely costly to the Chilean economy and very costly to insurers it won’t have any impact at all on catastrophe bonds as none that have been issued cover that region for quake risk.

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FSA concerned over potential for mis-selling life settlements

March 4, 2010

The UK’s Financial Services Authority has voiced it’s concerns over the potential for mis-selling in the life settlements sector. Their concern lies mainly in the fact that these are complex products with many risk factors to be taken into consideration. The FSAS expects providers to be clear about their target investors so as not to [...]

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Windstorm Xynthia hammers France; no initial impact to catastrophe bonds expected

March 2, 2010

Windstorm Xynthia tracked across northern France and into Germany on Saturday 27th and Sunday 28th February. Wind speeds recorded reached as much as 30 meters per second and a tidal surge (which coincided with spring tides) impacted the French Atlantic coast causing major damage and flooding. 50 people have been confirmed killed due to the [...]

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Indian government says ‘use catastrophe bonds’

February 28, 2010

The Indian government finance minister announced the 2009-2010 Economic Survey results this week. This annual survey looks at how the economy is progressing and suggests the governments ideas for ways to further stimulate and mature the quick growing financial markets in India.

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CME bullish on snowfall derivatives

February 28, 2010

Snowfall has certainly been a feature of the northern hemispheres winter months this year. The UK suffered much colder temperatures than normal and snowfall which remained on the ground for many days causing much disruption to transport, travel and businesses. The U.S. has suffered huge snowfalls in the northeast which again caused major disruption and [...]

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BMW offloads £3B of its pension longevity risk liabilities

February 23, 2010

BMW has now completed its deal (which we wrote about previously here) to offload the longevity risks of its group pension liabilities. The transaction which saw £3b of BMW’s pension liabilities transferred to Deutsche Bank is the biggest corporate longevity risk transfer on record and (as the FT reports) has doubled the size of the [...]

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Recent winter storms in the U.S. highlight the need for weather risk cover

February 15, 2010

The U.S. has been suffering some of the biggest snowfalls on record and has suffered major losses to the orange crop in Florida. The UK has suffered snow, ice and much lower temperatures than normal causing much disruption. Some areas of Asia have had significantly lower temperatures and higher snow fall than during a typical [...]

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Catastrophe bond indices on the up so far in 2010

February 13, 2010

We haven’t taken a look at the Swiss Re cat bond indices since the end of 2009. I thought it would be good to take a look at how the indices are fairing so far in 2010.

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