We hope all our readers have enjoyed or are continuing to enjoy a holiday break. We’re back to business as usual from tomorrow, with some catching up to do today. To bring those of you who are back at work up to speed with the market happenings from before Christmas, here’s a chance to catch up on the top news you may have missed in the run up to the festive break.
Top ten most viewed articles on Artemis.bm, week ending 25th December 2011:
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- The death of the total return swap and the rise of the Treasury money market fund
We take a look at how the speed with which total return swaps became old news for insurance-linked securities and catastrophe bond collateral arrangements and the speed with which money market fund arrangements began to dominate the market. - Oregon Investment Council commit $100m to Nephila funds
Another large public pension fund commits money to the ILS and cat bond market with an investment in Nephila Capital’s funds. - Vecta I Ltd. embedded value life securitization deal launched
The first EV life insurance securitization since 2007 comes to market. Could this herald the return of life ILS? This deal completed on the 23rd December at C$120m. - A.M. Best requests comments on draft criteria reports for cat bonds and sidecars
Ratings agency A.M. Best have updated their criteria reports for cat bonds, ILS and sidecars. The changes are minor but this is a chance for the market to respond as they are requesting comments from any interested parties. - Amlin’s Tramline Re cat bond doubles in size to $150m
Lloyd’s insurer Amlin’s first cat bond manages to double in size before close to secure them $150m of cover for certain natural perils for their subsidiary Amlin AG. - Insurance-linked securities investor base becoming more diverse
The investor landscape for ILS and cat bonds is broadening as they receive larger amounts of coverage in the financial press and more types of investors show interest. - 2011 catastrophe bond issuance volume “quite exceptional”, says Clariden Leu
Investment manager and private bank Clariden Leu are positive about the ILS market and see the volume of issuance achieved during 2011 as quite exceptional. - Signum Finance mortality linked CDS finally downgraded by Fitch
The Goldman Sachs issued mortality CDS has finally been downgraded after many previous rating watches. - British Airways offloads another £1.3 billion of longevity risk
BA achieve another large hedge for some of their pension fund longevity risk. - Thailand looking to hedge flooding with water-level or rainfall derivatives
The news that the Thai government are to look into using derivatives to hedge the risk of future flood events remains a popular story.
