economy

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 […]

All 16 member countries of the Caribbean Catastrophe Risk Insurance Facility (CCRIF) have renewed their policies with the hurricane and earthquake insurance pool. Member governments have been able to take advantage of effectively a 10% decrease in premiums due to receiving more cover for the same premium as last year. By pooling their risk the […]

The results of the most recent annual survey by the Weather Risk Management Association and Pricewaterhouse Coopers have been released at the WRMA conference yesterday. Here are some of the highlights of the report which covered the period April 1st to March 31st. Volume of contracts exchanged, both in OTC and exchange traded deals plummeted to […]

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 […]

We’re delighted to see that Guy Carpenter are continuing to embrace the digital channel to publish their latest catastrophe bond market update. The 1st quarter 2009 update is available to view now on their GCCapitalIdeas blog. The conclusion is that the 1st quarter has seen a healthy start to the year for cat bonds but […]

Not strictly on topic for Artemis, but worthy of a mention today, is the news that part of the new bailout deal for AIG (American International Group) will involve a life insurance securitization. This is the first time we’ve heard of securitization actually being an ends to the means of getting more bailout funding from […]

Universal Sompo General Insurance, the Indian subsidiary of Sompo Japan, have announced a move to launch weather insurance micro-finance products to the Indian agriculture market. Universal Sompo is a joint venture between Indian bank and investment companies and the huge Japanese insurer. They plan to leverage their massive branch and agent network (4,000 odd) to […]

The Organisation for Economic Development (OECD) has renewed it’s call for governments around the world to adopt the issuance of catastrophe bond structures to help better prepare them for natural disasters. In a report released yesterday, produced by the OECD, Swiss Re and Oliver Wyman, the OECD suggested that governments need to co-ordinate with each […]

Guy Carpenter have been awarded a grant by the Microinsurance Innovation Facility to allow them to develop a reinsurance facility for microfinance operations. Using the grant Guy Carpenter will create the infrastructure for a reinsurance pooling facility dedicated to microfinance risk transfer solutions. This will enable microfinance initiatives to access the global reinsurance and risk […]