The ninth named Atlantic tropical storm of the 2012 Atlantic Hurricane Season formed yesterday as tropical depression 9 became tropical storm Isaac. Tropical storm Isaac is currently headed straight towards the Caribbean Leeward and Windward islands, after which Isaac is forecast to head straight through the Caribbean making a course for the southern tip of […]
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A report from rating agency Standard & Poor’s estimates that the U.S. crop insurance and reinsurance sector will see losses of over $5 billion from the severe drought which has been affecting much of the country in 2012. S&P says that however large the loss becomes they believe it will impact crop insurers earnings but […]
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Every so often the financial press zero’s in on the catastrophe bond and insurance-linked security, usually to discuss the impact of natural events and losses. Sometimes they focus on positive aspects of the cat bond market, such as the returns that the asset class generates. Bloomberg have done just that today, publishing an article in […]
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The Ontario Teachers’ Pension Plan (OTPP) is a well-known investor in the insurance-linked securities and catastrophe bond space, having a dedicated manager for that portion of their investment portfolio. The largest single-profession pension plan in Canada, the OTPP has over $117 billion in assets and is considered forward-thinking in their use of alternative, or less […]
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The Chicago Mercantile Exchange (CME), the U.S. financial derivatives exchange where weather risk and hurricanes are traded, has applied to create a London-based derivatives exchange. The CME have submitted applications to the UK’s Financial Services Authority and says that pending regulatory approval as a Recognized Investment Exchange, the new exchange CME Europe Ltd will initially […]
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The 2012 Atlantic tropical storm and hurricane season has so far been benign, with no real threat to the U.S. coastline from any major storms and the season thus far causing no impact to the reinsurance or catastrophe bond sector. Sometimes hurricanes can surprise us though and the path of hurricane Gordon over the last […]
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Elementum Advisors, an independent investment advisor focusing on the reinsurance-linked investments space including catastrophe bonds, collateralized reinsurance, industry loss warranties and catastrophe derivatives, has announced two new hires which it says will significantly strengthen the depth of its legal, compliance and operational infrastructure. The two hires come from law firm Sidley Austin and Legal & […]
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Prime Management Limited, a Bermuda headquartered independent provider of fund administration services to onshore and offshore hedge funds with a focus on insurance-linked securities, has been recognised for its services to the ILS market. In the annual Global Custodian Hedge Fund Administration Survey, Prime Management achieved an overall score of 6.79 out of 7 and […]
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The last two weeks has seen a strong jump in the value of the outstanding catastrophe bond price return index as seasonal effects of the hurricane season have yet to seriously impact price returns. It’s time for our regular look at the Swiss Re Cat Bond Performance Indices (our last article here) to see what […]
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It’s been another busy week for news in the markets we cover. Many of our readers have been taking vacations over the summer period so we hope these recaps are proving useful. Visit this page where you can read all of our previous Monday morning catch-ups to find any stories you may have missed. Of […]
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CATCo Investment Management, the specialist Bermuda based reinsurance-linked investment business who manage around $2 billion of retrocessional portfolios for their clients, have announced that the net asset value of the CATCo Reinsurance Opportunities Fund increased by around 5.3% from $339.8m to $357.9m during the first six months of 2012. The positive performance reflects the gain […]
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Our readers are well aware that catastrophe bonds are a hot asset class at the moment, with growing interest being shown from an expanding spectrum of investors, and a growing market thanks to high levels of issuance in 2012. As an asset they offer an extremely attractive source of returns to investors, generally ranging between […]
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Scottish Re’s 2006 Ballantyne Re life insurance securitization transaction has been heading for what seems like an inevitable default for some time now. The Regulation XXX type life insurance linked transaction saw huge mark-to-market losses on the assets in the underlying collateral accounts. As a result it experienced regular failures to make interest payments resulting […]
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The economies of countries such as Bangladesh, Philippines, Myanmar, India and Viet Nam are among the most exposed economically to the impacts of natural disasters and weather or climate catastrophes, according to the second Natural Hazards Risk Atlas published by risk analysis and mapping firm Maplecroft.
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