Archive for October, 2012

Regular catastrophe bond sponsor, French reinsurer SCOR, are returning to the cat bond market for another Atlas issuance. The latest Atlas cat bond see’s them revert back to the original naming convention that they began their ILS market ventures with, using an issuing entity named Atlas Reinsurance VII Limited. The ninth cat bond transaction in […]

The results of a study published today by the world’s largest reinsurer Munich Re shows that North America is the region which has seen the biggest increase in weather-related extreme catastrophe events in recent decades. The report looked at weather related perils and incidence trends, finding that North America was the most affected in recent […]

Once again the changing regulatory environment under Dodd-Frank brings some uncertainty to the insurance-linked securities (ILS) market. The latest stems from the Dodd-Frank Act’s expansion of the definition of a ‘commodity pool’ which can now be read to include any entity which operates to trade in swaps. At the same time the definition of a […]

Finally a statement has come from the Louisiana state property insurer of last resort, Louisiana Citizens, which confirms that their losses from hurricane Isaac insurance claims will not be sufficient to trigger the Pelican Re Ltd. (Series 2012-1) catastrophe bond. There have been a number of statements where LA Citizens have said they expect the […]

Category one hurricane Rafael, the 17th Atlantic tropical storm of the season and packing maximum sustained winds of 85mph, is accelerating northwards towards Bermuda. Rafael is expected to pass just to the east of the island, later this afternoon and while the hurricane keeps that course impact should be minimal. Readers on Bermuda can expect […]

The recently completed MultiCat Mexico Ltd. (Series 2012-1) catastrophe bond, which you can read all about in our Deal Directory, became on-risk yesterday, the 15th of October, we believe according to available documentation. The risk period began yesterday and in a very unusual occurrence there is a hurricane heading directly for one of the cat bonds […]

Ratings agency Moody’s have affirmed their rating on two life insurance-linked securitization transactions sponsored by Unum Group. Northwind was the first securitization of individual disability insurance policies issued back in 2007, while Tailwind was the first securtization of a defined block of long-term disability claims in 2006. The transactions were seen as a way to […]

Reinsurer Swiss Re are bringing another new catastrophe bond to market. It is the second cat bond from Swiss Re to carry the Mythen name, named after Swiss Re’s head-office location on Mythenquai in Zurich, after they successfully issued Mythen Ltd. in May. The new cat bond is called Mythen Re Ltd. (Series 2012-2) and it […]

The latest catastrophe bond to hit the market, MultiCat Mexico Ltd. Series 2012-1, closed and listed on the Cayman Islands stock exchange on Friday and has received its final ratings from Standard & Poor’s today. The second MultiCat deal, replacing the cover from MultiCat Mexico 2009, was extremely well received by investors, becoming oversubscribed, upsizing […]

Recent months have seen investors in catastrophe bonds and insurance-linked securities make their best returns of the year as secondary market prices have soared thanks to strong demand and a benign hurricane season. It’s time for our fortnightly look at the Swiss Re Cat Bond Performance Indices (our last article here) to see what they […]