catastrophe bonds

There are many catastrophe bonds that are potentially at risk from a major landfalling Hurricane Irma, with as much as $14 billion of the outstanding cat bond market holding some level of exposure to Florida or U.S. east coast named storms and hurricanes.

In the latest updates to the Hurricane Irma forecast path the Miami-Dade area of Florida coastline is firmly in the center of the forecast cone, with Irma predicted to hit somewhere around Biscayne Bay to Miami Beach, the results of which are estimated as a $131 billion realistic disaster scenario (RDS) by Lloyd’s.

Updated – 21:00 UTC September 8th: Major category 5 Hurricane Irma, which became the second strongest storm in history in the Atlantic, has battered the Leeward Islands of the Caribbean leaving a trail of destruction, as it continues on its route towards Florida still packing 155 mph winds.

The fixed and multi-year pricing of its catastrophe bonds acts as an effective hedge against future reinsurance rate rises, according to Heritage Insurance CEO Bruce Lucas, something that is especially pertinent as major hurricane Irma tracks towards the United States.

Reflecting just how well capitalised the reinsurance industry is, analysts at Morgan Stanley said today that they believe that even the aggregate industry losses from hurricane Irma and hurricane Harvey combined could still only be an earnings event for the sector, rather than a capital event.

The market for live cat (live catastrophe) trading on the back of the approaching major hurricane Irma has not yet sprung into life, with plenty of potential buyers looking for last-minute protection but only a few trades and a market that is trying to find the right pricing levels to get deals executed.

It’s very early days to speculate on landfall for major hurricane Irma, which became a Category 5 monster storm this afternoon with winds of 180 mph, but should the forecast track prove correct and Irma make landfall in Florida it is expected that it would hit reinsurance interests hard, according to KBW.

Latest hurricane Irma updates can be found in this new article. Major category 5 hurricane Irma is currently heading west across the Atlantic, with winds of 180 mph and a forecast that shows maintained intensity and a potential threat to the United States coastline by this weekend, including south Florida, but with some uncertainty in […]

The latest forecast to be released for the 2017 Atlantic Tropical Storm & Hurricane Season joins others in suggesting a more active season, with a greater number of hurricanes likely to form over the coming months, as Colorado State University forecasters also increase their predictions for landfalling storms on the U.S. coastline.

A number of forecasts have been released for the 2017 Atlantic Tropical Storm & Hurricane Season and so far all are calling for activity levels just below the long-term average, with the expectation that we will see a weak El Niño by the typical peak of the season suggesting a slower year.