Archive for September, 2011

The aftermath, potential impact to any exposed catastrophe bonds and loss calculation from hurricane Irene has been the dominant piece of news in the last week. Other interesting news stories included the private catastrophe bond Kizuna Re Ltd. coming to market to successfully offer $160m of coverage to Tokio Marine. There were also a number […]

We’ve uncovered some further details on the Kizuna Re Ltd. privately placed catastrophe bond transaction which we wrote about earlier today. The $160m cat bond provides cover to sponsor Tokio Marine for some of their Japanese typhoon windstorm risks.

Scottish Re’s $2.1 billion 2006 life insurance securitization transaction seems headed for an inevitable default according to Fitch Ratings. The Regulation XXX type life insurance linked transaction has been finding it increasingly difficult to pay investors interest payments and now Fitch says that payment of principal is increasingly unlikely as well.

Our earlier article on the recently completed Kizuna Re Ltd. private catastrophe bond transaction contained an inaccuracy. We said the deal covered Japanese earthquake risks, but it transpires that the deal actually covered $160m worth of Japanese typhoon and windstorm risks.

Update: This deal actually covered Japan typhoon risks, not earthquakes as we originally reported. The sponsor has also been revealed as Tokio Marine, we have posted an update article here. A number of sources in the insurance-linked securities and catastrophe bond market have told us about a recently transacted private catastrophe bond deal which provides […]

The catastrophe bond market experienced strong secondary trading as hurricane Irene approached, according to Bill Dubinsky, Managing Director, Willis Capital Markets & Advisory in this article from AM Best. Secondary trading picked up as the storm approached allowing buyers and sellers (both investors and speculators we imagine) to trade into and out of the market […]

Colorado State University Department of Atmospheric Sciences has issued its latest two-week forecast for hurricane activity in the Atlantic. They predict an active period in the fortnight to come. One reason for this is the way they calculate activity using their Accumulated Cyclone Energy (ACE) index to denote activity levels. They say that Katia, which […]

The World Meteorological Organization (WMO) has published its latest update on the El Niño & La Niña weather phenomena in the Pacific ocean which have wide ranging effects on the global climate and weather patterns. The most likely scenarios are for the continuation of near neutral conditions or the formation of a weak La Niña […]

Yesterday, we wrote about the new report from Swiss Re which discusses the role of state governments in insurance and the role that insurance-linked securities have to play in financing the risks that they face. The report also discusses the longevity risk issue and the role that governments could play in helping to establish a […]

It looks like the final loss attributable to the Nelson Re catastrophe bond will not be known until at least December as the $67.5m Class G notes have had their maturity extended to the 6th December 2011 according to an announcement from Glacier Re. We updated you in July on the losses suffered by Nelson […]