Archive for November, 2011

We wrote earlier this year about the need to shrink the Florida Hurricane Catastrophe Fund and allow the private reinsurance and risk transfer markets to step in to provide cover where the Fund is now struggling. The Fund faces a large shortfall should any major hurricane strike the State of Florida and likely couldn’t manage […]

The Texas Windstorm Insurance Association (TWIA), the insurer of last resort who provide windstorm and hail insurance to Texas Gulf Coast property owners who might otherwise be left uninsured, is the latest semi-governmental insurer to look seriously at the catastrophe bond market as a way to complement their reinsurance and risk transfer program. A meeting […]

The International Association of Insurance Supervisors (IAIS) has published a paper today which provides their perspective on the role of the re/insurance industry and its interaction with the wider financial markets. The report suggests that the more re/insurers get involved in non-traditional techniques of risk transfer the more likely they are to pose global systemic […]

2011 could be a record year for pension scheme risk transfer deals as the desire to de-risk or offload risks including longevity grows among pension fund managers. So far 2011 has seen significant volumes in the pension buy-in and buy-out arena and also longevity swaps. By the end of 2011 pension consultants Hymans Robertson expect […]

A new report from ratings agency A.M. Best on the state of the insurance market in New Zealand, as it recovers from the earthquakes in Christchurch and huge number of aftershocks, suggests that the market is on the cusp of transformation. A.M. Best says that the operating environment for insurers and reinsurers has changed dramatically […]

Flooding caused by torrential rainfall across parts of southern France and Italy is likely to become the next big insured loss to hit the re/insurance industry this year. The rainfall was triggered from a rare extratropical storm in the Mediterranean which began as a low pressure system and resulted in an almost hurricane like storm.

Swiss based ILS investment firm Solidum Partners AG are one of the many participants in the California Earthquake Authority reinsurance program for 2012. They participated as a collateralized reinsurance vehicle to the tune of $52.5m in the program through a special purpose vehicle called Solidum Re Eiger IC Limited, fronting for their ILS investment funds […]

The secondary market for catastrophe bonds and insurance-linked securities saw moderate trading activity during the month of October with some activity being sparked by the new cat bond issuances that came to market. Often when new deals launch investors adjust their portfolios to keep their diversification optimal and to allow them to take on some […]

Reinsurer Munich Re says that their natural catastrophe database (NatCatSERVICE) shows that the Asia Pacific region is increasingly exposed to major weather-related catastrophe events. Their database shows that weather-related catastrophes have more than tripled in the last 30 years, with China seeing weather disasters quadrupling since 1980.

The last week has seen the launch of another catastrophe bond investment opportunity for retail investors, much analysis of the health of the insurance-linked securities market and some insight into potential regulatory pressures which may affect these markets amongst other topics we have covered.  Here’s a chance for our readers to catch up on any […]