Archive for March, 2013

The primary issuance catastrophe bond market sprung back to life this week as two new deals began marketing. We now have details on the first to share, a new transaction designed to support the North Carolina wind pools, the North Carolina Joint Underwriters Assn. (NCJUA) and the North Carolina Insurance Underwriters Assn. (NCIUA), with a […]

As most readers are probably aware, given this has been common knowledge for a couple of days now, Simon Fascione a key member of the team at insurance and reinsurance group Lancashire Holdings is leaving the firm shortly after it had been announced he was taking on responsibility for its new third-party capital management brand. Fascione […]

A new report published by Conning & Company looks at the insurance-linked securities (ILS) market and concludes that as the market for risk transfer through alternative instruments such as ILS, catastrophe bonds, industry loss warranties (ILWs), sidecars and collateralized reinsurance becomes more mainstream the reinsurer business model itself is changing. Reinsurers are increasingly participating in […]

Almost two weeks ago we wrote about the rumoured contingent convertible bond issuance which Swiss Re would be sponsoring as a way to protect its balance sheet against declines in its capitalisation. Contingent capital used in this way can provide broad protection against many risks which could impact a reinsurer like Swiss Re, from large […]

Nephila Capital, the largest investment manager in the insurance-linked securities (ILS) and reinsurance sector, and Allianz Risk Transfer (ART), the specialist alternative risk transfer business division within the Allianz Group, are to continue a mutually beneficial working relationship. The two firms have finalized an agreement which secures another three years of risk capacity for Nephila, […]

The index tracking the price return of the outstanding catastrophe bond market has risen again in the last fortnight and at its fastest rate so far in 2013. After a small dip a week ago, likely caused by the large amount of capital interested in catastrophe bonds and ILS as an asset class, the index […]

SCOR Global Life Reinsurance Ireland plc, an Irish subsidiary of French reinsurer SCOR Global Life SE, has entered into a life reinsurance transaction with a leading Spanish life insurance company, BBVA Seguros. The transaction sees SCOR reinsure a whole block of life reinsurance risks underwritten by BBVA and the deal takes the structure of a […]

Ratings agency Moody’s has upgraded the $50m of Class B catastrophe bond notes issued by Combine Re Ltd. in March 2012 after the deals annual reset. The notes had been downgraded in August 2012 after a number of severe thunderstorm and tornado events qualified under the terms of the cat bond as aggregate losses. The […]

A number of organisations based in, or with interests in, Bermuda have joined forces to promote the continued growth of Bermuda as a centre of excellence for the convergence of the reinsurance and capital markets under the banner of insurance-linked securities (ILS). The new member group is called ILS Bermuda and it aims to bring […]

The market is on its way to New York this week for the annual SIFMA ILS conference, at which Artemis will be in attendance. With the latest cat bond, Caelus Re 2013 Ltd., having upsized and dropped in price it looks like there will be much to discuss. As always, you can read every market news […]