Archive for December, 2011

The recently completed Golden State Re Ltd. catastrophe bond, designed to provide the California State Compensation Insurance Fund (SCIF) with a source of reinsurance cover for workers compensation claims resulting from major earthquakes, has been hailed as groundbreaking by many. The linkage this deal provides between earthquake losses and the resulting workers compensation claims is […]

The California Earthquake Authority (CEA) have published some more details of their plans for a return to the catastrophe bond market, presumably through their Embarcadero Re Ltd. Bermuda based SPV. The CEA were particularly pleased with their $150m cat bond that they issued in August which they felt cost them less than traditional reinsurance and […]

Reinsurer SCOR have announced the successful completion of their latest catastrophe bond transaction, Atlas VI Capital Ltd. 2011. It’s SCOR’s eighth time tapping the capital markets for catastrophe cover through one of their Atlas vehicles and this latest deal saw them issue three tranches of notes in two series, providing them just over $330m of […]

Government bonds, including U.S. treasuries, are likely to offer unexciting but relatively predictable returns during the current financial crisis, according to this article on FTAdviser. There is little chance of a major rally in these government securities but they are also considered relatively safe in the current financial market climate. However alternatives exist which can […]

Another week has passed and many new stories have been added to Artemis, here’s your Monday morning chance to catch up on the top news you may have missed. We’ve seen another new catastrophe bond come to market this week, another cat bond upsize while marketing and discussion of the innovation that insurance-linked securities and […]

As hurricane Irene approached the U.S. eastern seaboard catastrophe bonds changed hands rapidly showing liquidity in the marketplace. we wrote about this before here just after the event, but an interesting graph from Guy Carpenters recent Q3 ILS market report really shows the fluctuation in secondary market cat bond prices much more vividly.

The catastrophe bond market looks set to grow over the next year as issuance is thought likely to outstrip maturities allowing the total amount of catastrophe bond risk capital outstanding to grow. The market has shrunk since a year ago due to a high level of bond maturities (the class of 2008 cat bonds maturing) […]

The Golden State Re Ltd. catastrophe bond, which is designed to provide the California State Compensation Insurance Fund (SCIF) with protection for certain workers compensation claims resulting from major earthquakes has successfully completed and secured $200m of cover for the SCIF. This unique deal links earthquake intensity and severity to workers compensation loss totals, providing […]

The latest Atlas catastrophe bonds from SCOR have grown in size during the marketing phase due to demand from investors. SCOR is issuing three tranches of notes, in two series, under their Atlas VI Capital Ltd. special purpose vehicle. Two tranches of Series 2011-1 cat bond notes are being issued to provide SCOR with U.S. […]

2011 has been a year of major losses for re/insurers around the world and at home. This year has seen the highest number of billion dollar weather disasters in U.S. history although that hasn’t equated to the largest U.S. losses on record. Billion dollar weather disaster incidence does seem to be on the rise with […]