Archive for May, 2011

The weather derivatives market while not receiving a huge amount of press in the last year, has been quietly growing in size as end users of weather derivatives and associated weather risk management tools increase in number and diversity. The Weather Risk Management Association has announced the results of their latest survey of the weather […]

Another series of catastrophe bond notes, Atlas VI Capital Ltd. 2009-1 Class A, has had its rating downgraded due to exposure to the earthquake event in Japan, however in this case it’s not due to exposure to the 11th March M9.0 earthquake, rather it is due to exposure to two aftershocks which occurred in early […]

Lancashire Holdings, the Bermuda and UK based provider of specialty insurance products, has announced the formation of Accordion Reinsurance Ltd. a fully collateralised sidecar reinsurance facility. Accordion will be flexibly capitalised up to $250m and will act as a quote share reinsurer of Lancashire Insurance Company Ltd.

Natural disasters will likely become more frequent in Brazil and more expensive in terms of loss of human lives and financial expenditure by the government to rebuild and support those without insurance. Frequency of natural disaster in Brazil is on the rise, according to this Business News Americas article quoting a Swiss Re exec, with […]

Oklahoma insurance commissioner John Doak has requested that research be undertaken into perils that specifically affect Oklahoma including earthquakes, tornadoes, wind storms, ice and freezing rain, according to this article on the NewsOK website. His reasoning is that a study into the catastrophe risks that specifically affect his state could find ways to increase the […]

The latest 2011 hurricane prediction and forecast for Atlantic tropical storm and hurricane activity has been published by the NOAA’s Climate Prediction Center – a division of the U.S. National Weather Service. We thought it would be interesting to compare this most recent forecast of Atlantic hurricane activity with those we’ve covered previously.

A really interesting new weather risk hedging product designed to help the wind power industry hedge the financial risk of wind variability has just been announced in a joint statement by renewable energy risk analysis firm 3TIER® and Galileo Weather Risk Management. They’ve collaborated to create a financial instrument that could have a huge impact […]

Swiss based weather derivatives and risk management specialist CelsiusPro have announced the launch of a new pricing platform for distribution partners and new test accounts at the Weather Risk Management Association conference in Houston, Texas. CelsiusPro, who work in partnership with Swiss Re are already known for their online platform and this announcement marks the […]

The recently closed Johnston Re Ltd. Series 2011-1 catastrophe bond transaction has helped bring the amount of capital market cover for hurricanes afforded to the two North Carolina non-profit insurance associations, the North Carolina Joint Underwriters Assn. (NCJUA) and the North Carolina Insurance Underwriters Assn. (NCIUA) to $507m.

CATCo, a specialist Bermuda based investment manager who operate the London listed CATCo Reinsurance Opportunities Fund, announced yesterday that they have successfully raised an additional $121.1m (after commissions and expenses) through the issuance of over 124m C-shares with institutional investors. The offering was the first from a proposed placing of 400m new shares.