Archive for July, 2011

Despite the heavy loss activity of the first half of 2011 and the particularly low issuance levels during Q2, investors are still keen to invest in catastrophe bonds say Willis Capital Markets & Advisory (WCMA) in their latest Insurance-Linked Securities (ILS) Market Update which was published yesterday.

PERILS AG, the independent Zurich-based company providing industry-wide European catastrophe insurance data and loss indices, has announced that it has extended the region it covers to now include Norway and Sweden.

The second quarter of 2011 has been good for wind energy producers across the bulk of the U.S. after wind speeds have been reported to be generally elevated above normal across much of the country in a report from 3TIER®, a global leader in renewable energy risk analysis.

Risk modelling firm EQECAT have published a summary of the tornado and severe thunderstorm activity in the U.S. for the first half of 2011. You can access the full report, Summary of US Convective Storm Activity for First Half of 2011, from our CatWatch page.

Ratings agency A.M. Best have followed suit and downgraded the two tranches of the 2009 Montana Re Ltd. catastrophe bond transaction due to the significant increases in attachment probabilities brought on by the new and updated version of the Risk Management Solutions U.S. hurricane risk model.

We’ve been hearing rumours in the market about potential catastrophe bond deals which are getting ready to be marketed to investors with sources insisting that at least one new cat bond will issue within the next month. Some of our sources have told us to expect a European windstorm bond as one of the issues. […]

Ratings agency Moody’s has published an article discussing the announcement from French reinsurer SCOR about the triggering of their catastrophe linked contingent capital facility. Just over a week ago SCOR announced that the facility had successfully been triggered and would pay them €75m due to their rising catastrophe losses.

Risk Management Solutions (RMS) has announced the release of an expanded and upgraded version of their Europe Windstorm Model. The new version now offers coverage across 15 countries in Europe through the addition of Poland, Slovakia and the Czech Republic and a much improved dataset with inclusion of analysis of over two million claims and […]

Munich Re has published a report and data on the natural catastrophe loss events which have impacted the world and the reinsurance sector in the first half of 2011. To date, 2011 is now the most disastrous on record according to Munich Re, with total economic losses for the first six months of the year […]

The Caribbean Catastrophe Risk Insurance Facility (CCRIF), a non-profit multi-country risk pooling facility who provide parametric hurricane and earthquake cover to Caribbean countries, has had to delay the launch of its long awaited excess rainfall insurance product.