ils fund

Updated 15:00 ET: Invest 99L, or tropical depression 9, which we’ve been tracking for over a week reached tropical storm status and has just been upgraded to Hurricane Hermine by NOAA. The storm, which is tracking towards the Florida panhandle, is forecast to remain a hurricane until landfall, breaking Florida’s ten plus year hurricane drought.

All eyes in Florida and the Gulf Coast states will be on Invest 99L, a strong tropical low that is currently tracking west-north-west between Cuba and the Bahamas towards Florida, could develop into named tropical storm Hermine and which is forecast to pass into the Gulf of Mexico.

The Insurance Council of Australia has confirmed that severe storms that struck parts of the country in April and May have caused over AUD$1.55 billion of insurance industry losses. These storm  losses have caused at least two ILS funds to reserve for potential reinsurance claims.

A number of ILS or reinsurance linked investment funds have seen small impacts to their net asset value (NAV) in April, due to the severe east-coast low pressure system and hailstorm that impacted the New South Wales and Sydney area in April.

This interview with Vincent Prabis Head of ILS Strategies at reinsurer SCOR’s Global Investments unit, discusses what it’s like to operate an insurance-linked securities (ILS) unit within a major global reinsurance firm.