Archive for April, 2012

The average yield of outstanding catastrophe bonds and insurance-linked securities (ILS) has risen significantly in the last year reflecting the rise in cat bond and ILS premiums according to the latest report from Lane Financial LLC, a consulting firm and broker-dealer focused on the ILS and associated sectors. The jump in average yield on an […]

EQECAT recently announced that their new catastrophe risk modeling platform, RQE™ (Risk Quantification & Engineering) version 13 would launch in the autumn of 2012. The new RQE V13 platform will replace WORLDCATenterprise™ and is the culmination of three years of work which involved a significant amount of collaboration with their clients, prospects and industry experts […]

The mix of perils and the underlying structure of some recent catastrophe bond transactions point to a gradual expansion of the cat bond markets scope and offer investors new sources of diversification. The inclusion of new perils within some cat bonds while other deals focus on a specific peril and geographic location, along with new […]

The catastrophe bond notes issued in the recently completed Blue Danube Ltd. transaction have been approved for listing on the Bermuda Stock Exchange (BSX) along with the principal-at-risk variable rate notes program. Two tranches of notes, both of $120m in size have been listed, with both Class A and Class B due on the 10th […]

We’ve written a lot lately about the gradual decline in secondary catastrophe bond prices and the downward pressure on the catastrophe bond price return index, our most recent article on this here. We’ve focused on the higher than normal primary cat bond market issuance volume as the main cause for reduced interest in secondary cat […]

One of the newer investment managers with a focus on collateralized reinsurance, including instruments such as catastrophe bonds, insurance-linked securities and industry-loss warranties, is aiming to be investor focused by matching their needs with the best opportunities in the market. Petra Haven Capital LLC is based in Charlotte, North Carolina and led by CEO Brad […]

The International Monetary Fund has published a chapter of its Global Financial Stability Report which discusses ‘The Financial Impacts of Longevity Risk’. In it they warns that the U.S. and other governments need to acknowledge the size of the longevity risks they are facing, put in place mechanisms for improved risk sharing between governments, private […]

At the 31st March 2012 the amount of risk capital outstanding in the catastrophe bond market was up $1.1 billion year-on-year according to data from Aon Benfield. Achieving positive growth in this metric of the market is seen as important to the ongoing development of the cat bond and insurance-linked securities sector as the greater […]

A large earthquake has struck in the Indian Ocean off Indonesia’s Aceh province, close to Sumatra. Originally classed at 8.9 it has now been downgraded to 8.7. A tsunami warning for the entire Indian Ocean region has been issued by the Pacific Tsunami Warning Centre. It’s as yet uncertain whether there is a tsunami although […]

Pension Corporation are one of the larger firms which was established to take on assets and liabilities from pension funds and manage those through to the end of a pensions lifespan. As a result they take on significant assets from pension funds which need to be invested in a prudent manner to ensure pension liabilities […]