Archive for September, 2008

We all know that Hurricane Ike has been a catastrophic event for Texas and will result in many billions of dollars of losses. It’s only when the actual loss numbers get published that you fully appreciate the impact of a storm of this size. State Farm, the largest writer of homeowners peril insurance in Texas, […]

A.M. Best have just announced that they have joined S&P in putting catastrophe bonds which used Lehman Brothers subsidiaries as swap counterparties onto credit watch negative. Full details available through Business Wire here.

The other major catastrophe to hit the news in the past week is the demise of Lehman Brothers. As a result of the investment bank collapsing, Standard & Poor’s have downgraded four cat bonds which Lehman Brothers subsidiary Lehman Brothers Special Financing acted as swap counterparty on. The bonds in question are: – Ajax Re […]

I’ve been away for a weeks leave so apologies for the blog going quiet. Hopefully you will have managed to keep up to date through the Artemis news page which is constantly updated as news hits the wires. I’m playing catch-up on the happenings in the past week and of course the major story as […]

Standard & Poor’s have published some new criteria and advice papers on how they rate insurance linked securities and catastrophe bonds. Full copies of the reports are available through their Ratings Direct website and all the press releases can be accessed at the links below which require a log-in to the S&P website. Approach To […]

India has long been at the forefront of weather risk protection with ICICI Lombard leading the way with it’s monsoon rainfall protection policies for local farmers. Now they have said that they intend to bring out catastrophe products for farmers as well to help protect them from other natural hazards such as floods. This could […]

Between the 29th August and the 5th September as hurricane Gustav hit New Orleans and Hanna and Ike headed for the U.S. and Caribbean the Swiss Re Cat Bond Total Return Index fell 0.3%, it’s first decline since the severe midwest flooding earlier this year. You can chart the Swiss Re Cat Bond Index over […]

The annual report from Guy Carpenter detailing the worlds catastrophe reinsurance market is now available. They found that rates have dropped by 10% on average in 2008 compared to 6% in 2007. Peter Zaffino, President and CEO Guy Carpenter, said: “We continue to see a convergence of capital markets and reinsurance. With instruments such as […]

Here’s a great article (from Risk & Insurance) explaining the Carvill Hurricane Index and the effect Hurricane Gustav had on the volumes traded. These new products are becoming more accepted as they are easier to understand and access than other areas of alternative risk transfer.

Both A.M. Best and Standard & Poor’s have said that the combination of the active hurricane season and the natural catastrophe losses already experienced this year will help to stop rates dropping further and could even force them upwards. Should one of the storms to come cause another major loss then we will definitely see […]