Archive for April, 2011

The headline above is something that we hear every year as the U.S. hurricane season approaches and legislators begin their annual discussions about the best way to manage and run State wide catastrophe insurance funds and insurers of last resort. In recent years the discussions have been getting so complex, and often misguided, that no […]

Consultancy firm Mercer is moving into a new area of risk management and control to help pension scheme clients de-risk themselves from falling fund levels, volatility in the market and longevity risks. This article in the FT discusses the ways that Mercer say they are helping schemes including assisting them with investment strategies, particularly around […]

The first quarter of 2011 has been particularly devastating as far as catastrophe losses go and it looks like Bermuda domiciled reinsurers are going to pick up at least $5 billion of the bill. The Royal Gazette reports that major commercial re/insurers from the Bermuda market have already declared around $4.6 billion of insured catastrophe […]

Moody’s have affirmed the ratings of two insurance-linked security deals issued by Unum Group. The Northwind and Tailwind life insurance linked securities had their ratings affirmed as the deal performance and performance of underlying assets were both in line with Moody’s expectations despite recent economic conditions.

Most, if not all investment managers catastrophe bond funds have seen declines during March in the wake of the 11th March earthquake and tsunami in Japan. Clariden Leu are no exception and their March managers comment reports show just how big the impact of the disaster has been on cat bond funds.

The Cayman Islands Stock Exchange has delisted the two tranches of Munich Re’s $267.7m (€170m) catastrophe bond Queen Street Ltd. after the deal matured without any losses. Maturities are a feature of the first half of this year with a total of $4 billion of cat bonds scheduled to mature by the end of Q2.

Bermudian reinsurer PartnerRe Ltd. has provided an initial estimate for the scale of losses it believes it will face due to the earthquake and tsunami on 11th March in Japan. They believe that the total net impact of these events will be approximately $500m, primarily in their catastrophe business.

Michael Halsband who left Goldman Sachs recently is joining Deutsche Bank as a Director in their Capital Markets & Treasury Solutions Group. His new role will see him as a senior member of the New York based insurance solutions team.

Alterra Capital Holdings Limited today announced its exposure to the Japanese earthquake and tsunami disaster. They put their initial loss estimate at somewhere in the range of $60m to $100m. However it’s not just their insured losses that they announced, they also see an additional $25m of exposure to the event through their catastrophe bond […]

French NGO PlaNet Guarantee have teamed up with the International Finance Corporation insurance facility the Global Index Insurance Facility (GIIF) to launch what they are calling the first regional management platform for microinsurance and index insurance in West Africa.