Archive for September, 2010

So many industries suffer losses due to inclement weather. Nowadays many of those losses can be avoided through intelligent weather risk management or use of alternative risk transfer. This press release (below) is yet another great example of how innovative weather risk techniques are helping businesses weather proof their profits.

Most U.S. states which are at risk of landfalling hurricanes have state windstorm plans and pools which are designed to be insurers of last resort for people living in high-risk zones where getting any insurance cover is difficult. So as the ultimate backstop for some states how would they fair if a major hurricane hit?

A new report from MSA Research Inc. and Baron Insurance Services Inc., both based in Canada, looks at the Canadian legal and regulatory environment and asks how that could impact the formation of a market for insurance-linked securities in the country. The MSA/Baron Outlook report is released quarterly and looks at P&C trends in Canada.

A new report has been published by Oliver Wyman and Morgan Stanley looking at how Solvency II regulation and oversight will affect the insurance industry. Solvency II is something we’re following closely as it’s looking likely that it will spur on risk transfer and potentially insurance-linked securities.

Asian countries, and particularly China, India and Indonesia, are likely to face much higher losses from natural catastrophes in the future.

Weather Services International (WSI) has updated its forecast for the remainder of the 2010 Atlantic hurricane season. They say that they were somewhat surprised that Julia and Karl both attained major hurricane status last week and that has drawn them to the conclusion that the forecast needs to be upped slightly.

New York Superintendent of Insurance James Wrynn announced a number of measures aimed at keeping the cost of coastal insurance affordable for residents of New York. The proposals include standard deductibles for windstorms, reducing the number of non-renewals insurers may issue and creating a catastrophe pool to stabilise premiums.

Zurich have listed what they see as the ‘Top Ten Mega Disasters’ of the last decade on their website.These events have been selected based on loss of life, overall impact to businesses and the geographic scope and duration of the disasters. It also makes sense that these are some of the biggest insurance loss events […]

Guy Carpenter highlight an interesting point in the second part of their World Catastrophe Reinsurance Market report regarding the types of companies involved as arrangers, structurers and placement agents in catastrophe bond insurance-linked security deals this year.

Risk Management Solutions (RMS) have announced that they have added a new peril to their suite of Paradex parametric indices for estimating insured industry losses. They already cover U.S. hurricane, U.S. earthquake, European windstorm, Japan earthquake and now have added Japan typhoon to the service.