Archive for June, 2014

Here are the ten most popular news articles, week ending 22nd June 2014, on catastrophe bonds, reinsurance capital and related risk transfer topics, from the last seven days on Artemis. To ensure you never miss a thing  subscribe to the weekly Artemis email newsletter updates.

Insured losses from severe convective weather, including tornadoes, severe thunderstorms and hail, in the United States continue to rise in 2014, with the total now estimated to have reached an insurance industry loss of $5.5 billion by Impact Forecasting.

Swiss-based independent investment managers Dynapartners Ltd., an affiliate of TCMG Asset Management, is planning the launch of its first UCITS insurance-linked securities (ILS) fund in the second half of this year as it puts its new ILS team to work.

Credit rating agency Standard & Poor’s Ratings Services (S&P) has affirmed the rating for 18 tranches of natural peril catastrophe bonds, from seven issuers, after each tranche of notes went through their annual resets with no issues arising.

Private equity, credit investment and hedge fund asset manager Oaktree Capital Group LLC is reportedly in the process of setting up a life reinsurance company as it becomes the latest alternative asset manager targeting the reinsurance space as a source of capital.

There is a fixation with the staying power, or stickiness, of capital from investors in reinsurance investing and insurance-linked securities (ILS), but this discussion often overlooks the fact that investors in ILS are, in the main, a very sophisticated bunch.

The availability and price of terrorism risk insurance and reinsurance coverage has increased this year, as reinsurers look to provide additional terrorism re/insurance capacity as competition from alternative capital prompted them to be more supportive of the class.

Zurich-based catastrophe bond and insurance-linked securities investment manager Plenum Investments has announced that its flagship Plenum CAT Bond Fund has been approved for public distribution in the Netherlands and Luxembourg.

The DCG Iris London-listed insurance-linked securities (ILS) fund, marketed and operated by Dexion Capital with Credit Suisse providing ILS asset management services, may come to a close, with its Directors proposing its liquidation.

The Texas Windstorm Insurance Association’s (TWIA) first catastrophe bond, the $400m Texas named storm Alamo Re Ltd. (Series 2014-1) cat bond, has priced at the lowest end of the reduced and narrowed coupon guidance.