Archive for March, 2011

Swiss Re have today published their latest Sigma report which looks at the toll suffered around the globe from natural catastrophes and man-made disasters during 2010. The report shows that losses were exceptionally high in 2010, particularly for a year when the Atlantic hurricane season (one of the biggest loss events on many years) caused […]

Yesterday we wrote that in the wake of the tragic events in Japan, South Korea had begun to discuss the possibility of utilising catastrophe bonds to transfer its risks of natural disaster to the capital markets. Now, further articles in the Korean press suggest that they are also looking to introduce a weather risk management […]

Bermuda based reinsurer Flagstone Re’s $210m Montana Re Ltd. 2010 catastrophe bond has become the latest cat bond with exposure to the Japanese earthquake to have its ratings put on CreditWatch negative by Standard & Poor’s. The deal provides Flagstone Re with cover against U.S. hurricane and earthquake, European windstorm, Cayman Islands hurricane and Japanese […]

Moody’s Investor Services has some updated commentary regarding the four catastrophe bonds that are exposed to Japanese earthquakes which they have ratings for. The commentary in their ABS, ABCP & Covered Bond Quick Check report published today, suggests that the four cat bonds they rate could escape with zero or minimal losses.

Disaster insurance is ‘clearly a very relevant issue for Indonesia’ because post-disaster management is a lot more costly than disaster prevention, said a World Bank economist at an event in Jakarta last Thursday. The disasters that hit Japan on the 11th March have prompted Indonesia to set up an integrated disaster prevention system, part of […]

The tragic events in Japan have led a number of countries to discuss the use of catastrophe bonds as a financial mechanism for transferring their natural disaster risks to the capital markets. In recent weeks we’ve written about the discussions happening in Israel and Taiwan, where cat bonds are being discussed in government circles, now […]

The Swiss Re Cat Bond Performance Indices have continued to fall as the market reacts as it comes to terms with the 11th March earthquake and tsunami disaster. Investors are waiting to see how many of the catastrophe bond deals which are exposed to earthquakes in Japan will be triggered and experience a loss. These […]

Standard & Poor’s are the latest ratings agency to turn to a negative outlook on some of the bigger Japanese insurance companies (our article on Moody’s negative sentiment here). S&P have revised the outlook on nine Japanese insurers in the wake of the earthquake and tsunami disaster.

Risk Management Solutions (RMS) have issued a preliminary index value from their Paradex Japan earthquake index for the 11th March Tohoku earthquake. The Paradex index is used in two of the catastrophe bond transactions with exposure to the Japanese earthquake, Montana Re and Atlas VI Capital.

Risk modeller AIR Worldwide have issued an updated estimate for the amount of insured losses they expect the industry to see from the Japanese earthquake and tsunami on the 11th March. Their initial estimate was for a range of $14.5 billion to $34.6 billion excluding losses from the tsunami, which they said would take more […]