Catastrophe bond news

ISO, a division of Verisk Analytics, has launched a new initiative that will see it targeting the reinsurance and ILS space as it seeks to develop data and analytics tools which make operating, capital and capacity management more efficient.

An active month of trading activity in the secondary market for insurance-linked securities (ILS) and catastrophe bonds was observed again in December, as ILS investors continued to free up capital for new cat bonds and reinsurance renewals.

A new, comprehensive, high-resolution storm surge model for the U.S. has been released by catastrophe risk modelling and analysis firm Karen Clark & Company (KCC), which it believes will help ILS investors to get more comfortable with this risk.

The Texas Windstorm Insurance Association (TWIA), the insurer of last resort for Gulf Coast property owners in the state, has begun planning for its 2015 reinsurance renewal, which could include another Alamo Re catastrophe bond.

As 2015 gets underway organisations continue to view business interruption (BI) and supply chain risk as the main threat to operations, with the impact of natural catastrophes and fire/explosion risks following, according to a recent Allianz report.

According to sources, the price guidance for the latest health insurance-linked security (ILS) from Aetna, Vitality Re VI Ltd. (Series 2015-1), has not changed as the transaction approaches completion.

Last year was a record breaker for the use of cat bond lite platforms, as re/insurers showed increased acceptance of specialist issuance platforms, revealing a growing understanding of catastrophe bonds as a risk transfer, reinsurance and capital management tool.

Secondary market catastrophe bond trades captured by FINRA’s TRACE system in the last week showed a trend towards lower pricing, especially for short-dated bonds which continue to change hands.

Here are the ten most popular news articles, week ending 18th January 2015, 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.

The Swiss Central Bank’s (SNB) surprise move to abandon the currency rate cap on the value of the Swiss franc against the Euro, which has been dubbed Francogeddon by affected traders, is unlikely to have much impact on the ILS market it is thought.