Archive for December, 2009

Zurich Financial has announced the completion of its $225m catastrophe bond, Lakeside Re II Ltd. The three year deal will protect its subsidiaries Zurich American Insurance Co. Ltd. and Zurich Insurance Co. Ltd. against potential claims from certain qualifying earthquakes across the state of California. The offering is said to have been oversubscribed although Zurich […]

Global insured catastrophe losses for the year of 2009 have come in below average at $24B. This is the lowest since 2006 and below the average for 1990-2009 of $27.1B. The benign Atlantic tropical storm and hurricane season has contributed to the lower figure significantly. Europe has actually suffered above average losses this year thanks […]

You could be forgiven for thinking that Bermuda was no longer a player in the insurance-linked securities and catastrophe bond market. 2009 has seen the bulk of deals issued out of the Cayman Islands and even the Bermuda domiciled reinsurers haven’t been as active in the market as they used to be. But the island […]

The Longpoint Re II Ltd. catastrophe bond from Travelers has now completed. The $500m deal (which upsized from an initial $250m) has taken the total issuance in the cat bond market during 2009 over the $3b mark. There are deals in the pipeline but at this stage we’re not sure whether they will be able […]

It’s time for a final look (for 2009) at the Swiss Re cat bond indices. Both indices have shown an amazing recovery from the low points of this time last year and that growth has continued although with slight retreats due to the volume of deals and notes available in the marketplace after a busy […]

PERILS AG, the independent company based in Zurich which was set up to aggregate and report on European catastrophe insurance data, has announced the placement of the first two transactions which utilise its industry loss index.

The Longpoint Re II Ltd. U.S. hurricane risk catastrophe bond from Travelers Indemnity Company is reported to have been upsized to $500m. That’s double the initial value the transaction was initially marketed at and further demonstrates the current health and appeal of the cat bond market. Investor demand is said to the reason for the […]

Swiss Re have announced completion of a deal to insure the longevity risks associated with a pension fund run by the UK’s Royal County of Berkshire Pension Fund, a local government fund. Swiss Re say this is the first pure longevity risk transfer undertaken for any government body worldwide. The deal covers 11,000 pensions which […]

Zurich is preparing to launch a $225m (remember that could rise) catastrophe bond to provide it with protection against earthquakes in California. The transaction will be issued by Cayman Islands based SPV Lakeside Re II Ltd.

Partners Group AG, a global asset manager, has announced some structural changes with their business. They’re a typical investment management firm with over 24B Swiss francs under management in private equity, private debt, real estate, infrastructure and alternatives (amongst other areas). The announcement highlights some changes to their structure. One of those is that they […]