Archive for June, 2013

Currently, the market is facing huge demand for insurance and reinsurance-linked investments from potential investors, according to comments made by Stefan Holzberger, Managing Director of Analytics for A.M. Best Europe, the European division of the rating agency. Demand from investors for insurance-linked securities is so high that it far outstrips demand, he believes.

The latest catastrophe bond from U.S. specialty insurer Assurant has now received its preliminary rating and a pre-sale report has been published, which means we have more information on the transaction to share. Ibis Re II Ltd. (Series 2013-1) is Assurant’s fourth cat bond to be issued under an Ibis Re named vehicle.

Hiscox, the Bermuda headquartered international specialist insurance and reinsurance group, has launched what looks like its most direct venture in managing third-party reinsurance capital in recent years, with a recently registered Bermuda special purpose insurance vehicle, Kiskadee Re Ltd.

A new firm called Phoenix CRetro has launched targeting the catastrophe retrocessional reinsurance market while offering a way for institutional investors and capital providers such as re/insurers in Central and Eastern Europe (CEE), the Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS) which consists of countries formerly part of the Soviet Union and the Middle East & North […]

Risk modelling firm AIR Worldwide has released an estimate for insured losses in Germany resulting from the recent flooding events across Central Europe. AIR estimates insured losses in Germany to be between €4 billion and €5.8 billion, that’s up to $7.7 billion in USD. The flood event is ongoing so any insured loss estimates could […]

The second named tropical storm of the 2013 Atlantic hurricane season formed in the Gulf of Mexico yesterday, as a tropical depression attained enough organisation to reach high enough wind-speeds to be named. Tropical storm Barry is heading directly for the Veracruz region of Mexico, so poses no threat to he U.S. coastline.

The Canadian Wheat Board (CWB) has entered into a $150m transaction with Sun Life Assurance Company of Canada, a subsidiary of Sun Life Financial Inc., to transfer investment and longevity risk from CWB’s defined benefit pension plan to Sun Life. It is the first inflation-linked pension risk transfer deal of its kind in Canada.

French insurer Groupama’s latest catastrophe bond transaction Green Fields II Capital Ltd. (Series 2013-1) has been the recipient of strong investor demand, almost doubling in size while marketing to €280m in size. At the same time the price guidance has been lowered right at the bottom end of the originally marketed range.

American International Group (AIG) is returning to the catastrophe bond market in search of a new source of fully-collateralized reinsurance protection for its subsidiaries and affiliates with Tradewynd Re Ltd. (Series 2013-1), according to market sources. It will be the fifth time that AIG companies have issued a cat bond to source reinsurance protection from […]

A recently formed, Bermuda-based, enterprise risk software development consultancy called Treefrog Consulting Ltd. aims to target both the traditional reinsurance sector and the alternative reinsurance capital and insurance-linked securities (ILS) space with its services.