Archive for January, 2011

The Newton Re Ltd. catastrophe bond transaction which utilised Lehman Brothers Special Financing division as counterparty for a total-return swap has now matured. The 2008 transaction has been consistently downgraded by rating agencies since the global financial crisis caused the collapse of Lehman Brothers. The deal matured on the 7th January 2011 but failed to […]

In an update to the London Stock Exchange where it is listed, CATCo Investment Management Ltd. (recently launched collateralized reinsurance investment manager) announced that its CATCo Reinsurance Opportunities Fund (which trades on the LSE) has deployed 96.3% of the initial start up capital it raised at launch.

Aon Benfield Securities has published its latest report looking into the last quarter of activity in the insurance-linked securities and catastrophe bond market. The Q4 2010 report looks at the key trends of the past quarter and provides some good insight into issues which affect the market (such as risk model changes and the Dodd […]

Damage and insured loss estimates for the flooding in Queensland, Australia are varying wildly as people attempt to quantify the enormity of the disaster that has struck. Our article yesterday which discussed S&P’s bulletin that said losses to insurers would exceed A$1 billion looks like a major underestimate as more recent announcements have raised loss […]

To tackle the issue of longevity risk, the risk of an increasingly ageing population and the impact that will have on pension liabilities, the re/insurance industry will need to work closely with both governments and capital markets. On its own the re/insurance industry does not have the capacity to assume the amount of longevity risk […]

Seeking to regulate the growing microinsurance markets is a growing trend in the developing world. After the initial pilot schemes, run by NGO’s and governmental organisations have ended countries are finding they are often left with a system which has not got proper regulation in place.

The financial sector does not have access to enough information on the changing weather and climate according to a new report from the United Nations. The survey of 60 financial institutions found that just one third felt sufficiently informed on climate change and concludes that these organisations need better access to weather data and climate […]

Standard & Poor’s have issued a bulletin saying that losses from the flooding being experienced in Queensland, Australia could end up costing the re/insurance industry over A$1 billion. Despite the potential high losses S&P says that ratings on Australia’s major general insurers remain unaffected so far.

It’s becoming easier all the time to manage your weather risks from the comfort of your sofa thanks to the launch of a number of weather risk management tools and services which allow customers to customise and purchase weather risk protection (be that weather insurance or weather derivatives) online.

Each year, the World Economic Forum (WEF) works with insurers and risk management professionals to come up with a report which highlights the main global risks the world will face in the coming year. The 2011 report has been published recently. For this report the WEF worked with Swiss Re, Marsh & McLennan, Wharton Center […]