Archive for August, 2013

The month of July saw the recent higher activity levels in the secondary market for catastrophe bonds persist, as investors further rebalance portfolios in order to take on new cat bond issues and some investors continued to take advantage of recent price rises to capitalise on mark-to-market gains.

A consultation document on longevity risk transfers has been published by the Joint Forum, a forum established by the Basel Committee on Banking Supervision (BCBS), the International Organization of Securities Commissions (IOSCO) and the International Association of Insurance Supervisors (IAIS) to deal with issues common to the banking, securities and insurance sectors.

A new research program, launched by scientists at Atmospheric and Environmental Research (AER) alongside insurance, reinsurance and insurance-linked securities sector companies, aims to quantify any shifts in hazard patterns for severe thunderstorms, tornadoes and hail in the U.S.

Catastrophe risk modelling firm EQECAT released the latest updated version of its risk modelling platform this week. The updated RQE® (Risk Quantification & Engineering) version 14 platform enables EQECAT’s clients, including insurance-linked securities users, to quantify and manage the potential financial impact of natural hazards.

Rothesay Life, a leading UK pension risk transfer specialist life insurer which owner Goldman Sachs intends to sell a majority stake in, has completed another pension risk transfer transaction. The £280m bulk annuity transaction sees Rothesay Life take on more pension plan risk including covering longevity.

The investment fund operated by reinsurance and retrocessional reinsurance-linked asset manager CATCo Investment Management is on course so far in 2013 having produced ‘very satisfactory’ performance, according to its Chairman in the funds half-yearly report. CATCo has built a considerable share of the retrocessional reinsurance market and will seek to consolidate that.

Investment manager Credit Suisse has continued to offload positions in certain catastrophe bonds on the secondary market to take advantage of mark-to-market price gains during the month of June. As we wrote a month ago, Credit Suisse has recently found value in capitalising on secondary market cat bond price rises.

The Atlantic and Caribbean tropics are heating up and forecasters suggest that storm formation will become increasingly likely over the coming days. The race is on to see who will claim the name of tropical storm Erin, with tropical depression 5 in the far eastern Atlantic, while a depression in the Caribbean is also set […]

Property Claim Services (PCS), a division of Verisk and the leading source of data on insured property losses from catastrophes in the U.S. and Canada, has a desire to expand its industry loss data reporting services. PCS is looking at international expansion options for its catastrophe data services as well as marine & energy as a […]

Bermuda headquartered reinsurance firm Third Point Reinsurance Ltd. has priced its initial public offering of shares and raised slightly less than expected at approximately $276m. The hedge fund backed reinsurer sold 22,053,286 common shares at $12.50 per share, the lower end of proposed range.