Archive for August, 2011

To date there has only been a single insurance-linked security transaction which transferred the risk of policyholders living longer, or longevity risk, to the capital markets. That transaction, Kortis Capital Ltd. which was sponsored by Swiss Re, successfully came to market in December 2010 but so far no-one else has tried to emulate the deal.

Despite the issuance of four new catastrophe bonds, which brought close to $700m in additional investment assets to the insurance-linked securities market, demand remains strong amongst investors seeking to access the sector according to investment manager Clariden Leu in their latest monthly fund managers report.

The market for transferring the risks associated with pension schemes, including transferring longevity risk, has continued to grow during the last quarter in the UK. Q2 became one of the busiest quarters for the pension risk transfer market since the credit crisis of 2008, resulting in £1.4 billion of risk transfer deals completed, comprising buy-ins, […]

Standard & Poor’s have published an announcement stating that they have suspended the rating on the recent Queen Street III Capital Ltd. catastrophe bond which provides Munich Re with protection amounting to $150m of their European windstorm risks. The reason for the suspension is the same as the reason that another recent cat bond, Pylon […]

It’s two weeks since our last look at the Swiss Re Cat Bond Performance Indices, so it’s time to see how their performance reflected the mood and state of the catastrophe bond and insurance-linked securities market over the last fortnight. Both of the indexes have risen since our last look at them and the total […]

We received so much feedback on an article we wrote a year ago on the potential for catastrophe bonds and insurance-linked securities to provide a source of reinsurance for oil spills that we decided to follow up with some insight from market participants on the subject. Last week we published a great article written by […]

Risk modeller EQECAT, Inc. have issued a press release regarding their involvement in the recently completed Pylon II Capital Ltd. catastrophe bond which transferred some of EDF’s European windstorm risks in France to the capital markets. The press release provides a little extra detail to our previous coverage on this transaction.

After a slight hiccup last week, when due to the volume of news we neglected to post a ‘best of the previous week’ piece on Artemis, we’re back to trial this again in the hope that it allows readers who’ve missed an article a chance to catch up on the market news from the past […]

Two more Atlantic tropical storms formed over the last three days but neither posed a great threat to land. Tropical storm Franklin formed on Friday in the northern Atlantic and meandered to the east for a couple of days before dissipating. Tropical storm Gert formed yesterday and is currently around 100 miles from Bermuda but […]

The latest catastrophe bond which provides protection ultimately to a corporate sponsor, Pylon II Capital Ltd., closed yesterday at a target size of €150m. The transaction provides Electricite De France (better known as EDF), one of the largest energy companies in the world and a leader in nuclear power generation, with five years of reinsurance […]