Catastrophe bond news

The insurance-linked securities (ILS) and catastrophe bond market transformed from an alternative source of reinsurance capacity into a driver of rates in 2013, according to the insurance and pension solutions team at Deutsche Bank.

The increased need for reinsurance coverage resulting from new initiatives aiming to put more of the risk in the private or ILS market will amount to around $318m of new premium income to be split between traditional reinsurers and third-party capital, say analysts.

We should expect to see more catastrophe bonds being issued by state and government backed insurance entities in the future, as investor demand remains high and costs of sponsoring a cat bond come down, according to Fitch Ratings.

The speed of insurance-linked securities and catastrophe bond rate declines slowed in the fourth-quarter of 2013, but still rates dropped to their lowest level since before hurricane Katrina struck, according to data from ILS consultancy Lane Financial LLC.

The coming year of 2014 may prove to be a pivotal one for the catastrophe bond and sidecar market, as the shakeout between traditional and alternative reinsurance capital continues, according to Willis Capital Markets & Advisory.

Korean Re, currently the 9th largest reinsurance firm in the world, has published a three-stage strategic roadmap with the ultimate goal of becoming one of the top three reinsurers. Unsurprisingly, catastrophe bonds and alternative capital will feature.

Investment management group Schroders has seen significant growth in the assets under management of its catastrophe bond and insurance-linked securities (ILS) fund strategies, as well as a broadening of its investor base in recent months.

A $50.12m series of private catastrophe bond notes has been issued through the Kane SAC Limited Note Program, a platform that global independent insurance manager Kane established to assist private insurance-linked securities (ILS) sponsors.

Here are the ten most popular news articles, week ending 26th January 2014, on catastrophe bonds, reinsurance capital and related risk transfer topics, from the last seven days on Artemis. To ensure you never miss a thing  subscribe to the weekly Artemis email newsletter updates.

The Cincinnati Insurance Company, a subsidiary of Cincinnati Financial Corporation, has returned to the catastrophe bond market for its second and largest issuance, with a $100m Skyline Re Ltd. (Series 2014-1) arranged by Jardine Lloyd Thompson Capital Markets.