Archive for June, 2008

Back in April I posted about the feeling among Caribbean disaster management and meteorology officials that the Caribbean Catastrophe Risk Insurance Facility was not providing enough cover for protection against smaller storms (original post here). It seems that some of those fears have been allayed as reports state that the 16 original government members have […]

Glacier Re have just released the below press release on their recent Nelson Re transaction. Remember, details on this and other deals are always available in our Deal Directory. Nelson Re issues $180 million of catastrophe bonds Glacier Reinsurance AG (“Glacier Re” or “the Company”), the Switzerland-based reinsurer, today announces that Nelson Re Ltd has […]

As ever at this time of year, interest in weather derivatives amongst the press picks up. I don’t know whether it’s purely a seasonal thing or perhaps the WRMA annual meeting has helped to stir interest this year. Anyway, here are two news articles that appeared over the weekend that are worth reading: Weather derivatives […]

Malawi’s Finance Minister Goodall Gondwe said Friday the country in collaboration with World Bank will pilot a crop insurance scheme against adverse weather which could also be repeated elsewhere. “We have…agreed to pilot a World Bank weather insurance scheme under which a premium is paid and if it is found that the weather conditions have […]

Nephila Capital Ltd. has secured a $50m investment from Man Group plc (EMG), this equates to a 25% stake. The stake is part of Man Groups programme of diversifying it’s alternative investment strategies and will allow them to offer their customers investments in weather derivatives and insurance-linked securities.

I commented earlier about the article promoting the Cayman Islands as a centre for cat bond and sidecar issuance. In the interest of fairness it’s come to my attention that the Bermuda Stock Exchange (BSX) has listed the Valais Re programme. It’s been listed as a form of capital raising for the reinsurer Flagstone Re. […]

A lot of catastrophe bonds and reinsurance sidecars are domiciled within the Cayman Islands. At the islands recent budget address measures were announced with the aim of further developing the reinsurance sector. Examples of deals with a Cayman heritage include sidcars the (very) recent Nelson Re 2008-I, Nelson Re 2007, Zenkyorens cat bond SPV Muteki […]

Environmental Finance is carrying a news story announcing that Bluenext, the French environmental exchange, is planning on listing weather derivative contracts in the near future. The plan is to launch European contracts to begin with and follow on with U.S. in the future. This has got to be good for competition in the marketplace. Bluenext […]

As well as assisting in the structuring, placement and risk analysis for the recent Globe Re sidecar issue from Hannover Re, Benfield have also made an investment of $20.5m in the vehicle according to an article in Post Online. Grahame Chilton, Chief Executive of Benfield commented: “Benfield Advisory led the way in creating capacity for […]

Storm Exchange have just released their Summer 2008 Weather Risk Outlook. Paul Walsh, Chief Strategy Officer at Storm Exchange said; “Our weather risk outlook is different than most weather forecasts because, in addition to using state-of-the-art atmospheric research technologies, we also analyze 150 years of historical data to give businesses a risk probability that they […]