Archive for September, 2011

This morning we attended Standard & Poor’s London ILS event, the ‘5th Annual European Insurance-Linked Securities Conference’. This well attended, informative event featured a number of interesting panel discussions including one involving three well known ILS investment managers discussing the increasing trend for pension funds investing in ILS and catastrophe bonds.

Another reinsurance company has been formed which has strong links to a hedge fund. In what is becoming quite a trend, Third Point Re has launched in Bermuda as a way to raise additional capital for New York based hedge fund Third Point LLC, according to Bloomberg.

Yesterday we updated you with the news that ratings agency Standard & Poor’s had updated the covered loss totals for the Mariah Re Ltd. Series 2010-1 catastrophe bond transaction. The losses have been mounting from the severe tornado season in the U.S. and the holders of the $100m of Series 2010-1 notes are now just […]

International finance law firm The Walkers Group have today announced the launch of a new team within its structure who will provide dedicated resource to insurance-linked securities issues and transactions. The Walkers Insurance Linked Securities (ILS) Group brings together expertise from throughout Walkers regarding alternative risk transfer arrangements such as catastrophe bonds, reinsurance sidecars and […]

Yesterday we wrote about Standard & Poor’s recent update on the status of covered losses under the terms of the Mariah Re Ltd. Series 2010-1 severe thunderstorm catastrophe bond. The cat bond has been accumulating losses from the severe spate of thunderstorms and tornadoes which affected the U.S. over the last few months. The figure […]

Ratings agency Standard & Poor’s has issued a statement on the topic of using risk models from multiple vendors to assist in the rating of catastrophe bonds. Back in April, S&P put 15 catastrophe bond ratings on CreditWatch negative due to the introduction of a new version of the RMS U.S. hurricane risk model. The […]

The insurance-linked securities market is now 15 years old (see our Deal Directory for details of historic transactions), but the market is still poised for further growth as reinsurers, corporations and governments all seek out ways to efficiently transfer risk, according to a report published today by reinsurer Swiss Re. Sponsors continue to successfully access […]

Aon Benfield Securities recently published a very comprehensive report on the last twelve months in the insurance-linked securities and catastrophe bond market, which we wrote about here. As well as reviewing the market and transactions from the last year the report also looks at some interesting data points which we felt worth highlighting separately.

Tropical storm Lee hit the Gulf Coast states over the weekend bringing winds and extremely heavy rains to many areas from Texas through to the Florida panhandle. Louisiana seems to have taken the brunt of the storm with some reports of more than 15 inches of rain in certain areas causing severe flooding.

The impact of the record-breaking U.S. severe thunderstorm and tornado season on exposed catastrophe bond Mariah Re Ltd. Series 2010-1 is a little clearer after ratings agency Standard & Poor’s published an update on the amount of losses that have qualified under the terms of the aggregate cat bond. Losses have been mounting over the […]