Archive for October, 2011

Once again the Florida Hurricane Catastrophe Fund has hit the news after new concerns were raised about the Funds ability to pay claims should a major hurricane strike. The 2011 hurricane season has been kind to Florida so far and it looks like the fund may get away without having to pay for a major […]

The Signum Finance Cayman Ltd. Series 2010-09 transaction which provides Goldman Sachs with a mortality hedge for a defined block of life insurance has been put back on a Rating Watch Negative status by Fitch Ratings. We first wrote about this interesting insurance-linked securitization almost a year ago and then updated you on its status […]

Much of our coverage on the investment side of the insurance-linked securities and catastrophe bond market discusses the opportunities the asset class presents to institutional investors seeking non-correlated assets offering diversification to their portfolio. It’s rare that we write about diversification within an insurance-linked portfolio, so some insight gleaned from investment manager Clariden Leu’s recent […]

Towers Watson Capital Markets (TWCM) have named Michael Popkin as their new co-head of insurance-linked securities. In the role Popkin will assist TWCM clients in their strategic risk management needs with insurance-linked securities and industry loss warranties. He will also help in the development and implementation of instruments such as sidecars, catastrophe bonds and life […]

Yet again insurance-linked securities and catastrophe bonds are being held up as great investment assets in the current uncertain global economic climate and once again Australia is where the discussion is coming from. In their latest Ibbotson Insight article titled ‘Capital Preservation for Australian Investors‘, their Head of Alternative Investments Michael Coop says investors should […]

Floods are the most common natural catastrophe worldwide according to a new paper from insurance and financial services group Allianz. During 2010 the International Disaster Database EM-DAT collected data on approximately 400 natural catastrophes with at least 100 people affected or 10 deaths, of these 182 cases were caused by flooding affecting 179m people worldwide.

Australia could be at risk of more severe flooding this year as experts predict an above average tropical cyclone season for the region. The Australian Bureau of Meteorology posted their tropical cyclone season outlook recently and are urging people to prepare for the rainy season as climate models point to another La Niña season, although […]

Standard & Poor’s has issued a press release which provides commentary on their approach to rating medical benefit linked securitization transactions such as the Vitality Re Ltd. and Vitality Re II Ltd. deals which were issued on behalf of insurer Aetna. The commentary provides some information on the factors that S&P consider during their analysis […]

Risk information and analysis firm Verisk Analytics have announced some insured loss estimate figures resulting from hurricane Irene taken from a preliminary estimate of insured damages by county made using their Verisk Catastrophe Index product. They don’t disclose a total estimate for the event but do give some insight as to the state and county level […]

Insurance-linked securities focused Swiss private bank and investment manager Clariden Leu have said that based on discussions they had with market participants at the Monte Carlo Rendezvous in September they expect to see four to five publicly issued catastrophe bond transactions by the end of the year.