Archive for January, 2013

Reinsurance broker Aon Benfield has launched a new index-based weather reinsurance product for UK insurers in collaboration with reinsurer Swiss Re and weather risk management specialists CelsiusPro today. The product, called WExcess, is designed to provide UK insurers with a source of index triggered reinsurance protection against losses from severe weather conditions.

Specialist Bermuda based reinsurance-linked investment manager CATCo Investment Management, who manage clients assets and deploy them as capacity for over $2 billion of retrocessional reinsurance portfolios, has published a stock market update commenting on the increased hurricane Sandy insurance industry loss estimate from PCS. CATCo’s comments relate to the size of the PCS estimate and […]

A new report on the Bermuda reinsurance market published by Fitch Ratings says that the Bermuda re/insurance market continues to lead the way as the convergence of the reinsurance market and capital markets persists. Many of the islands re/insurance groups are involved in the provision of alternative risk transfer solutions which leverage capital markets capacity, […]

In the latest insurance-linked securities market report from the world’s largest reinsurer Munich Re’s Risk Trading team, the increasing sophistication and reinsurance knowledge of dedicated ILS and catastrophe bond investors is referenced as a development in the market which enables the placement of more complex structures. The market is particularly receptive to diversification opportunities right […]

A report published today by reinsurer Swiss Re looks at the growing energy markets, how they are forecast to change and grow as renewable energy sources become ever more important and policy begins to reflect climate science and how they will require financing and risk transfer solutions. The report identifies a growing opportunity for reinsurers, […]

Over the course of 2012 the island of Bermuda become home to 53 new international insurers, four new insurance agencies, five new insurance managers and two insurance brokerages. Of the insurers, 27 are Special Purpose Insurers and most of these have been formed to undertake some kind of fully collateralised reinsurance often with third-party capital […]

The second estimate of hurricane Sandy insured losses has been released by Property Claims Services (PCS) this week. The first estimate of $11 billion which PCS reported in November has been increased by 70% to a new total of $18.75 billion. This number is very close to the total of reported loss estimates from insurers […]

Alternative investment manager LGT Capital Partners, has won a £280m mandate to manage a portfolio of alternative investments for UK local authority Hertfordshire County Council. It is one of the largest mandates focusing solely on alternative asset classes from a UK authority pension fund underscoring the attractiveness of alternatives at the moment. The mandate covers […]

The Lakeside Re III Ltd. catastrophe bond which completed in December brought benefits to sponsoring insurance group Zurich beyond purely transferring risk to the capital markets. The $270m U.S. and Canada earthquake cat bond provides Zurich with a multi-year source of collateralized reinsurance indemnification on an annual aggregate basis. It is Zurich’s third cat bond in […]

Investment manager Dexion Capital’s has published the first half-yearly report for its insurance-linked security (ILS) fund offering DCG Iris Ltd. The report which looks at the period from launch in June 2012 to the end of November, provides an overview of the funds progress and reveals that over that period the fund returned 1.88%. The […]