Archive for October, 2009

The Finance Ministry of Mexico has announced (read a translation of the press release here) the completion of the MultiCat Mexico 2009 Ltd. catastrophe bond deal. The deal (full details here and in our Deal Directory) is designed to protect Agroasamex and in turn the Mexican fund for natural disasters against losses from certain hurricanes […]

Standard & Poor’s have released a report which details their opinion on life settlement securitizations. Despite seeing increasing interest in this asset class and being approached with inquiries from various institutions, S&P say they have no plans to start rating them anytime soon. S&P believe there are inherent risks and obstacles in securitizing life settlements […]

Axis Capital, the Bermudian reinsurer, has announced in its preliminary third-quarter results that it expects to lose around $136m due to a longevity risk derivative contract. The final loss will be unveiled in the reinsurers official third-quarter results filing. The derivative contract doesn’t expire until 2017 but Axis will have to carry those losses on […]

Here’s a question for those of you interested in the development of new weather risk transfer products. Could something be developed to allow insurance companies who have motor lines to hedge against the risk of increased accidents due to the weather? It’s widely accepted that poor weather, particularly an increase in rainfall, will cause an […]

AEGON, the huge Dutch life insurance group, has announced the completion of a life insurance securitization transaction designed to free up capital to the group. The transaction will free up approximately $650m of additional regulatory capital to its U.S. operations. The transaction itself is worth $900m (the first portion of which was realised in 2008) […]

Guy Carpenter have released their third-quarter 2009 catastrophe bond update today. As ever the report looks back at the last three months of market activity including issuance, redemption, outstanding risk capital in the market, how issuance’s were composed, a brief look at industry loss warranties and an outlook for the fourth quarter.

AIR Worldwide has announced that Typhoon Melor which hit mainland Japan earlier this week could have resulted in a lot of insured losses. They estimate losses at somewhere between $850m and $1.5b onshore. That’s a big number! There are catastrophe bonds which are still in effect which provide cover against Japanese typhoons. Swiss Re’s Vega […]

The Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) has put out a press release which asks for public comments on a proposal submitted by Media Derivatives, Inc. to allow them to set up a ‘movie derivatives’ exchange. Veriana Networks, a privately owned company, are applying to launch an exchange called Media Derivatives (MDEX) which would provide a […]

The Canadian newspaper, The Global and Mail, reports today that Canada’s insurance regulator, the Office of the Superintendent of Financial Institutions (OSFI), has been approached by insurers about using bonds to hedge against weather risks. The regulator says that they are open to the idea and will consider allowing property and casualty insurers to create […]

This news article explains the plight of an organisation who held a fund raiser recently. The weather turned bad and it rained throughout the day meaning that they only had around 200 spectators instead of the 3,000 they expected. They are estimating a loss of $10,000. They should have got weather insurance cover I hear […]