Catastrophe bonds and insurance-linked securities news

A second and larger M7+ earthquake struck the Kumamoto region of Kyushu, the southernmost main island of Japan, during the early hours of Saturday morning local time. Damage in the region is now much more extensive, with many reports of buildings and structures downed.

The European Union is set to discuss proposals for banks and possibly other financial firms to be stress tested for their exposure to climate change related risks, such as extreme weather or floods, according to documents seen be Reuters.

The month of March saw limited activity in the secondary trading market for catastrophe bonds, as new issuance of $565m of more broadly marketed cat bonds and a $300m club deal that wasn’t widely marketed, failed to stimulate much demand for portfolio adjustments.

A strong magnitude 6.4 earthquake (subsequently revised down to M6 by the USGS) has struck the Kumamoto region of Kyushu, the southern of the main islands of Japan. Some damage reports are emerging, but the impact is currently largely unknown although not expected to be too significant.

The global insurance and reinsurance industry, so including the ILS and catastrophe bond market along with providers of capital, needs to do more to help counter the threat of climate catastrophes, according to UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-Moon.

Harneys, a legal and fiduciary services firm with offices in twelve countries, has added an insurance-linked securities (ILS) and reinsurance experienced lawyer to its Bermuda team, hiring Michael Skribic to its ranks.

The alternative risk transfer techniques adopted by the insurance-linked securities (ILS) market, as well as the depth of capacity that can be provided by the capital markets, are both needed to help to tackle the “Too big to insure” world of cyber risk, according to a study.

Lombard Odier Investment Managers (LOIM), the asset management arm of Swiss private banking group Lombard Odier, has announced the launch of its first catastrophe bond fund, the UCITS compliant LO Funds – CAT Bonds.

Heritage Property & Casualty Insurance has been approved for underwriting property and casualty insurance in the state of Georgia, which now becomes another potential state for its Citrus cat bond coverage to expand to.

Insurance-linked security (ILS) and catastrophe bond rates-on-line have remained relatively stable for more than a year now, with the Lane Financial LLC synthetic rate-on-line index showing a slight uptick in the last quarter.