Archive for September, 2010

Hurricane Karl is destined to make a second landfall on the Mexican coastline late on Friday. Currently a strong Category 2 hurricane with sustained winds of 105mph, Karl is expected to strengthen before making landfall and could hit the coast as a Category 3 storm. Update: the forecast has changed in the last hour and […]

India’s government cabinet have today approved changes to the laws which allow commodity trading in the country. The laws have been in place and allowed trading of commodity futures since 2003. The new change to the law will allow commodity options to be traded on exchanges within the country.

Currently there are two very powerful hurricanes in the mid-Atlantic and a tropical storm which could be a hurricane soon in the Gulf of Mexico. This year is proving to be extremely active as was forecast and now records have been broken. Here’s some interesting facts about the Atlantic tropical storm and hurricane season of […]

You would be forgiven for thinking that FONDEN, the Fund for Natural Disasters of Mexico, would be perfectly able to cope with losses from natural disasters as it has the MultiCat Mexico 2009 Ltd. catastrophe bond to fall back on. Unfortunately, the types of disasters which cause regular problems in Mexico aren’t covered by that […]

Microinsurance is becoming a hot topic among insurers and reinsurers looking for new sources of revenue and new markets to enter. It’s an opportunity the size of which hasn’t been seen by the insurance industry for many years but there are some key points to remember when it comes to introducing microfinance products in developing […]

Swiss Re are bringing to market a second catastrophe bond under the Green Valley Ltd. Cayman Islands domiciled special purpose vehicle on behalf of French insurer Groupama. The transaction which comprises €100m of insurance-linked securities is expected to be completed within the next two weeks.

New Zealand’s Earthquake Commission, a state owned disaster insurer which will pay the first layer of claims from the recent Christchurch earthquake, has received permission to sell stocks and bonds it holds to raise cash to cover claims. The government has agreed that it needs to sell the assets so that it holds enough cash […]

Société Générale Corporate & Investment Banking, a division of the French investment bank, has announced the launch of a contingent capital facility for insurers and reinsurers.

Bermuda is at risk of a dangerous side swipe from Hurricane Igor. Igor, the ninth named storm of the Atlantic season, is currently an extremely powerful Category 4 hurricane with sustained winds of 155mph. It’s tracking towards Bermuda at the moment and is forecast to pass just to the west of the island this weekend […]

The Crystal Credit transaction issued by Swiss Re to provide it with cat bond type credit reinsurance protection through securitisation seems to be destined to default. We’ve covered it a number of times (previous coverage here) over the last couple of years during which time it has been downgraded due to risk of default.