Archive for February, 2016

A new, U.S. severe thunderstorm (STS) scenario model has been launched by Aon Benfield’s catastrophe model development team, Impact Forecasting, which will assist sponsors and investors in the catastrophe bond space to better understand U.S. thunderstorm risks.

Some weather derivative contracts have been impacted by the unusually warm winter conditions seen in the fourth-quarter of 2015 and which have continued into this year, with January 2016 seeing more temperature records broken.

GC Securities was involved in more than $2.4 billion of catastrophe bond and insurance-linked securities (ILS) transactions during 2015, growing its contribution to the outstanding market, according to data from the Artemis Deal Directory.

A more balanced ratio of buyers to sellers in the secondary market for catastrophe bonds resulted in a greater degree of equilibrium during January 2016, helping to support and stabilise prices, while the market saw elevated liquidity thanks to post-renewal portfolio adjustments.

Reinsurance and retrocession linked investment and fund manager Markel CATCo Investment Management Ltd. has appointed a new Chief Operating Officer (COO) from within, promoting Mark Way, who has worked for the firm since its launch in 2011, to the role.

Analysts at Bernstein have warned against the dangers of “bad business” and “underpriced risk” in the reinsurance sector, while reminding market players that in order for the softening environment to turn, “first there must be blood.”

Providing evidence of the accessibility of attractively priced reinsurance capital for retrocession Validus Re CEO, Kean Driscoll, says the firm has purchased its “most comprehensive and affordable program”, with the majority of the capacity coming from the ILS market.

U.S. military mutual insurer USAA’s new catastrophe bond, the Espada Reinsurance Limited (Series 2016-1) transaction, is set to complete at the lower end of the insurers volume ambitions, securing just $50m of reinsurance, while the pricing has been set at the top-end of guidance.

Markel’s recent acquisition of insurance-linked securities (ILS) and asset manager, CATCo Investment Management has created opportunities in both its reinsurance and ILS operations, and the firm continues to see a growing interest in its product set, says Markel.

Here are the ten most popular news articles, week ending 14th February 2016, covering catastrophe bonds, ILS, reinsurance capital and related risk transfer topics. To ensure you never miss a thing subscribe to the weekly Artemis email newsletter updates.