Archive for January, 2011

Goldman Sachs has completed its acquisition of Paternoster, an insurance company specialising in pension risk transfer. Goldman Sachs already owns Rothesay Life, another specialist in the pension risk transfer market. The two companies will remain separate for a short time until a merger of the two can be arranged.

Last January we started a poll which ran all year allowing Artemis’ readers to guess what volume of catastrophe bonds would be issued during 2010. Well, our readers are a knowledgeable bunch as the response with the most votes was $4B to $6B (2010 actually saw $5.2 billion of cat bond issuance) and this answer […]

It’s time for our the first monthly update of 2011 on the health of the Swiss Re catastrophe bond indices. The last few weeks of 2010 were extremely busy in the cat bond market, with a number of deals completing (full details can be found in our catastrophe bond Deal Directory).

Ghana looks likely to be another country who will adopt the usage of index-based weather insurance as a way to help their farmers cope with the vagaries and extremes of weather faced by the west African nation. The country is seeking to boost its food security and with the help of the World Bank, who […]

Aetna announced today through a press release the completion of the Vitality Re Ltd. medical benefit linked insurance linked security transaction. This catastrophe bond type structure provides Aetna with additional reinsurance cover for certain of its health insurance risks. The press release from Aetna follows below.

In our first interview of 2011 we spoke with Greg Wojciechowski, President and CEO of the Bermuda Stock Exchange (BSX). The BSX is seeking to raise its profile within the insurance-linked securities (ILS) sector and wants to make Bermuda the domicile of choice for listing of catastrophe bond notes. We asked Greg about the BSX’s […]

The World Banks MultiCat catastrophe bond program was launched back in September 2009 with the MultiCat Mexico 2009 Ltd. catastrophe bond which provides Mexico with three years of cover against earthquakes and hurricanes which impact their FONDEN disaster fund.

Japanese newspaper the Yomiuri Shimbun report that Japan Insurance Co. has started to see weather insurance products which refund the full value of travel costs should it rain or snow more than a certain amount at a customers destination within Japan.

Willis Capital Markets and Advisory, the division of broker Willis that advises re/insurers and clients on capital markets products and issues, has published a review of the fourth quarter 2010 insurance-linked securities and catastrophe bond market. It’s the first time we can remember Willis publishing an update on ILS and cat bonds, so demonstrates their […]

Swiss Re have issued a press release about the recently completed Green Fields Capital Ltd. catastrophe bond transaction which they arranged and issued on behalf of Groupama. The deal provides Swiss Re with cover for reinsurance they provide to Groupama. The press release follows below.