credit crisis

2009 has been the year that catastrophe bonds evolved to avoid the credit risk issues of the past caused by reliance on a total return swap counterparty for collateral. After the credit crisis proved that all financial instruments have some degree of correlation to the wider financial markets transactions completed this year have all taken […]

The latest annual review of the insurance-linked security and catastrophe bond markets has been published by Aon Benfield. The report ILS Review 2009 – Adapting to an Evolving Market takes a look at activities in the market this year and the latest trends within the sector. The report looks at the disruption caused by the […]

We’ve mentioned in the past the potential for catastrophe bonds to be utilised by the banking systems as a way to protect against the failures we’ve seen due to the global financial meltdown. Now, the International Monetary Fund has published a working paper which suggests exactly that as a possible left-field approach to protecting financial […]

Moody’s has placed the notes of Genworths‘ River Lake Insurance Company IV Ltd. subordinated notes on review direction uncertain. The River Lake IV transaction was initiated by Genworth to provide it with reserve relief under Regulation XXX. While not strictly a life insurance securitisation, the deal was supposed to provide Genworth with a source of […]

After all the troubles of the second half of 2008, Lehman Brothers collapse, cat bond downgrades and financial market (initial) meltdown, entities issuing catastrophe bonds seem to have taken heed of investor and rating agency worries. Recent cat bond deals in the first quarter of 2009 have all shown a willingness to address the issues […]

Insurance-linked securities, particularly catastrophe bonds, have had a rough time of late thanks to the economic crisis and the collapse of Lehman Brothers. Any positive outlook is a welcome thing in times like these. The Geneva Association are the latest organisation to paint a positive outlook for these capital market instruments in their latest issue […]

Despite 2008 being a year of economic upheaval with the credit crunch biting and fluctuations in prices of almost every asset or commodity you can think of, catastrophe bonds have really not fared too badly. If you look at stock markets and commodities, most are down on the start of the year. Let’s take a […]

Bloomberg is carrying another article discussing the current lack of interest in catastrophe bonds from an investment point of view. The current economic climate combined with the collapse of Lehman Brothers has caused a massive drop in investor confidence and reluctance among issuers to launch new deals. A side effect of that and much discussed […]

There’s a Reuters story (available here via Insurance Journal) in the press discussing the current slowness in the catastrophe bond market despite the fact that they remain in favour with investors. The story highlights the fact that there are at least $2b worth of bonds in the pipeline some (or all) of which may get […]

At times like these any source of background data and information is welcome to help understanding of the impact of the credit crisis on your markets. With stock markets declining, oil prices falling by the day, businesses folding and consumer confidence waning how will this impact the reinsurance and insurance markets? Well the Geneva Association […]