Archive for July, 2011

The U.S. has been suffering from unusually high temperatures, dry weather and heatwaves across many regions in recent days and weeks. High temperatures mean weather traders are busy as companies and traders seek to hedge their weather risks using instruments such as weather derivatives.

Business News Americas report here that a Swiss Re representative has declared that they will seek to replicate the Microinsurance Catastrophe Risk Organisation (MiCRO) to provide cover across several Caribbean and Latin American countries in the coming months.

The expected catastrophe bond issued to benefit the California Earthquake Authority (CEA) is now marketing as Embarcadero Re Ltd. which will bring another welcome diversification opportunity for insurance-linked security investors after a quarter of limited supply. It’s the first time that the California Earthquake Authority have been a cat bond beneficiary since the last Redwood […]

The final losses attributable to the Nelson Re Ltd. catastrophe bond, which was issued on behalf of sponsor Glacier Re (who are now in run-off) back in 2008, are becoming clearer today after Moody’s issued a ratings affirmation and update regarding the transaction. Nelson Re was impacted by losses from 2008’s hurricane Ike which caused […]

Weatherbill, the weather insurance specialists who offer a number of products such as their RainCheck insurance, have announced that they have expanded their Total Weather Insurance products coverage to include cover for the 2012 winter wheat crop. To date the Total Weather Insurance program only offered the U.S. agriculture industry cover for weather damage to […]

The third named storm of the Atlantic tropical storm and hurricane season has formed in the mid-Atlantic but poses no threat to the U.S. coastline. Tropical storm Cindy formed yesterday and is heading away from the U.S., travelling northeast into the open Atlantic where it will only be a threat to shipping interests should it […]

Last week Risk Management Solutions (RMS) announced the release of a new version of their Europe Windstorm Model. The new version increases the number of countries covered, enhances the dataset and offers a much improved view of European windstorm risk according to RMS.

One of the interesting insights provided by Aon Benfield’s Q2 2011 insurance-linked securities market report is the observation that Japanese insurers have demonstrated a heightened interest in catastrophe bonds lately. It seems that the triggering and eventual total loss of the Muteki Ltd. cat bond in the 11th March earthquake disaster has been seen as […]

China is a country particularly exposed to damaging losses from a range of natural catastrophes and severe weather events and it regularly suffers billions of dollars of economic losses per year and major loss of life. Despite this fact insurance penetration is low across the country and natural catastrophe coverage is hard to come by.

Aon Benfield have today published their report on the insurance-linked securities and catastrophe bond market for the 2nd quarter of 2011. The report, titled ILS Second Quarter Update 2011, looks back at issuance during the last quarter and contains a number of interesting topics which we’ll endeavour to cover for you where relevant and where […]