Archive for March, 2012

Coriolis Capital Ltd., the London based investment firm who specialise in insurance-linked securities, catastrophe bonds, weather hedging instruments such as derivatives and manage two funds, are another ILS fund manager who has struggled to make a positive returns in February. According to this article on Opalesque, Coriolis Capital’s main hedge fund, the CaTpricorn Fund, suffered […]

With an ageing population, slowing birth rate and an increasing rise in life expectancy as well as impending accounting standards which will encourage the need to show their capital adequacy, Japanese insurers and pension schemes are expected to face growing longevity risks in the coming years, according to this article in Life & Pension Risk […]

Interesting news in the longevity swap and longevity risk transfer market today as Deutsche Börse and the longevity analytics arm of Hymans Robertson, Club Vita, announce the launch on Friday of the Xpect – Club Vita Indices. This new series of longevity indices aim to offer UK pension schemes an index-based alternative which they say […]

PERILS AG, the independent Zurich-based company providing industry-wide European catastrophe insurance data and loss indices, has updated the insured loss estimate for European windstorm Joachim, which occurred from 15 – 17 December 2011 in Western Europe. The first estimate, published at the end of January, pegged the insured loss estimate for windstorm Joachim at €300m.

The secondary market for outstanding insurance-linked securities and catastrophe bonds showed a dramatic tightening of prices in February, according to Swiss based investment manager and private bank Clariden Leu in their latest fund performance report. This is notable for this market, say Clariden Leu, given that it is generally quite stable except for when responding […]

The overall size of the catastrophe bond and insurance-linked securities market grew slightly in 2011 for the first time since the record issuance year of 2007. At the end of the year there was over $12 billion of outstanding catastrophe bonds and over $14 billion of cat bonds and life insurance-linked securities together. Estimates put […]

A newly launched data service from MDA Information Systems, Inc. and Riverside Technology, inc. aims to enhance hydroelectric energy providers access to information and data about water supply and forecasts which could help them to better understand and then hedge their risks. The web-based subscription service known as the Weather and Hydrology Information Portal (WHIP) […]

Market sources have told us that another of the large U.S. State non-profit insurers has decided to tap the capital markets for a portion of its reinsurance cover this year. Louisiana Citizens Property Insurance Corporation, a non-profit insurer of last resort for the residential and commercial property owners in the state of Louisiana who aims […]

Akibare II Ltd., the first Japan typhoon catastrophe bond of 2012, has been launched and is being marketed to investors. The $90m cat bond is being sponsored by Swiss Re on behalf of the ultimate cedant Japanese insurer Mitsui Sumitomo Insurance Co. Ltd. a subsidiary of MS&AD Insurance Group Holdings. The transaction will go someway […]

The tenth catastrophe bond of 2012 has begun marketing this week, adding to the record Q1 issuance seen so far this year (details of them all can be found in our Deal Directory). Blue Danube Ltd. is sponsored by German insurer Allianz, a regular ILS and cat bond sponsor, who tend to use the word […]