Reported insured losses from February’s severe snowstorms in Japan are rising, with the latest report being a forecast incurred loss of up to $722m from MS&AD Insurance Group Holdings, Inc.

Insurance-linked securities (ILS), reinsurance linked investment and pure catastrophe bond funds were up 0.49% for February 2014, a slightly below average return for the month, according to the latest data from the Eurekahedge ILS Advisers Index.

New York based Stone Ridge Asset Management, which specialises in investments in alternative risk exposures including reinsurance and insurance-linked securities (ILS), has increased its allocations to collateralized reinsurance and sidecars.

Standard & Poor’s (S&P), the global credit rating agency, has affirmed the ratings on seven tranches of insurance-linked securities (ILS) from transactions which transferred mortality, longevity and life insurance risks to the capital markets.

Resolution Life, the life focused arm of insurance entrepreneur Clive Cowdery’s Resolution Group, has set up a new permanent capital structure which aims to acquire and manage in-force portfolios of life insurance to benefit its institutional investors.

India’s national reinsurance company, General Insurance Corporation of India or GIC Re, is continuing to look at catastrophe bonds as a viable addition to its retrocessional reinsurance program, according to its chairman.

Credit rating agency Moody’s said in a report that the recent completion of the Kizuna Re II Ltd. catastrophe bond is a credit positive event for sponsor Tokio Marine & Nichido Fire and could spur issuance of more Japanese cat bonds.

The volume of catastrophe bonds issued during the first-quarter of 2014 which utilised data from Property Claim Services (PCS) within their triggers totalled $465m, accounting for 50% of the applicable deals issued.