Archive for January, 2011

The beleaguered Crystal Credit catastrophe bond transaction has hit another hurdle as Standard & Poor’s announce that they have downgraded the rating on one tranche of its notes. Crystal Credit is a cat bond type deal which covered a defined portfolio of credit reinsurance treaties for Swiss Re.

The Financial Times carries an article written by Robert Zoellick, the current President of the World Bank which looks at soaring world food prices and the impact on poorer, developing nations. The article titled Free markets can still feed the world details some ‘practical and interconnected’ steps that Zoellick says can help the G20 nations […]

Bermuda has been trying to catch up with the Cayman Islands as a domicile for the insurance-linked securities and catastrophe bond marketplace after having slipped behind when the Caymans became the domicile of choice. The regulatory and legislative changes that Bermuda have made seem to be having a positive effect as the Bermuda Stock Exchange […]

Risk Management Solutions (RMS) has released details about its part as risk modeller for the recent Kortis Capital Ltd. transaction, the first longevity catastrophe bond, issued by Swiss Re. The deal closed recently and enabled Swiss Re to transfer $50m of its longevity risks to the capital markets through insurance-linked securities.

Towers Watson, the global professional services company, has published its five predictions for the pension market in 2011. Their fourth prediction is for an increase in longevity risk hedging among pension schemes and they state that improved access to tools which allow pension schemes to evaluate their longevity risk exposure should enable more schemes to […]

An interagency committee in the Philippines has approved a set of draft standards for how microinsurance products should be marketed and sold as well as a draft for a standardised product structure. The draft now has to be passed on to their Insurance Commission for approval which could happen by the end of this month.

The inclement global weather conditions experienced during 2010 have impacted many businesses and industries. One area that has been particularly badly hit was commodities. The prices that companies pay for commodities have been rising steadily and a lot of that rise has been due to the weather.

Here’s a useful list of all of the catastrophe bonds we have recorded as issued during the year 2010. Each deal is linked to our catastrophe bond deal directory where you can read more details on the transaction structure and cover provided by each cat bond. By our reckoning there were 26 deals issued about […]

We’ve just received a press release from the Bermuda Stock Exchange announcing the listing of the notes issued by Lodestone Re Ltd. at the tail end of 2010. The $450m cat bond issued on behalf of Chartis provides them with cover against U.S. hurricanes and earthquakes. The press release from the BSX follows below.

Another catastrophe bond transaction managed to close just before the end of 2010. The Green Fields Capital Ltd. catastrophe bond (our previous coverage here) which was issued by Swiss Re to give them extra cover for some of the reinsurance they provide to Groupama. This effectively helps to guarantee the reinsurance cover Groupama receive from […]