Archive for February, 2013

Kalista Global the Bermuda headquartered insurance and reinsurance services firm focusing on the insurance-linked securities (ILS), catastrophe bond, parametric re/insurance and alternative reinsurance sectors, has launched another new product today. Hot on the heels of the launch of an index-based ENSO (El Nino) cover the firm has announced the launch of a range of multi-peril […]

Very interesting news this morning on the Nelson Re Ltd. catastrophe bond, whose fate has been uncertain for well over a year now due to an arbitration claims over whether the Class G tranche of cat bond notes issued by Nelson Re back in 2008 faced a loss of principal or not, ultimately due to […]

Here’s some more evidence which shows the appetite that large independent investment managers have for reinsurance as an asset class right now. F&C Asset Management, a London Stock Exchange listed investment house, has increased its allocation to the Montpelier Re backed Blue Capital Global Reinsurance Fund to now hold just over 15% of the funds […]

As the level of uncertainty surrounding the insurance industry loss from hurricane Sandy reduces, investment managers with exposure to the storm are beginning to resolve the situation around side-pocket investments. As we wrote at the start of February, the DCG Iris ILS fund is making progress on merging C Shares back into its Ordinary share […]

A new report on the U.S. and global insurance and reinsurance market published yesterday by Conning & Company suggests that as the convergence of reinsurance and capital markets continues to play out the trend will bring its own challenges for the industry to deal with. Competition, between traditional and alternative reinsurance players, will likely grow […]

Reflecting investors high demand for insurance-linked securities, catastrophe bonds and reinsurance-linked investments, the first natural peril catastrophe bond to be broadly marketed this year looks set to increase in size and reduce in pricing as a response. The cat bond, Caelus Re 2013 Ltd., which is being marketed on behalf of sponsor Nationwide Mutual has […]

While primary issuance of catastrophe bond and insurance-linked securities has not been so strong at the start of 2013 compared to a year earlier, it appears that a strong appetite for insurance-linked investments looks set to be a feature of the market in 2013. In contrast to the primary market which was slow in January, […]

Contingent capital has been back on our radar recently thanks to the market rumours suggesting that reinsurer Swiss Re has been arranging a marketing roadshow for a contingent convertible bond issuance recently. The first time we wrote about contingent capital on Artemis it was not with reference to reinsurers however, it was discussing whether contingent […]

Where the final industry loss estimate for hurricane Sandy ends up means more to some companies than others. In particular firms which have reinsurance contracts, industry loss warrants (ILWs) or insurance swaps with a trigger set at the $20 billion level are particularly interested in the next update from Property Claims Services. Lancashire Holdings, a […]

There’s been an interesting development in the Chinese insurance and reinsurance market which could open the doors to third-party capital management, issuance of securities including insurance-linked securities (ILS) or catastrophe bonds, hedge fund type business models and re/insurers operating as investment managers. The China Insurance Regulatory Commission (CIRC) has announced that from February 2013 insurers […]