Insurance linked securities news, ILS news

Here are the ten most popular news articles, week ending 11th June 2017, covering catastrophe bonds, ILS, reinsurance capital and related risk transfer topics. To ensure you never miss a thing subscribe to the weekly Artemis email newsletter updates.

The brisk issuance seen in the catastrophe bond market so far in 2017, which has resulted in the market achieving a new record size of over $29 billion in recent weeks, has helped investment manager OFI Global which is an Oppenheimer company, increase the size of its global cat bond strategy back to near highs.

Another new catastrophe bond has come to market, this time with the third visit to the cat bond market in recent years from Italian and global insurance giant Assicurazioni Generali S.p.A. with a EUR 200 million Lion II Re DAC transaction, as it seeks reinsurance protection against European perils including flood risks.

Risk modelling and analytics firm RMS has released an updated version of its risk models for earthquake risks in the United States, Canada and Mexico, with the new version seen as a “major step forward in managing earthquake risk.”

As the National Flood Insurance Program (NFIP) increasingly looks to risk capital, from traditional reinsurance and in the future capital markets, in order to de-risk itself and better protect the taxpayers who ultimately back it, it’s perhaps more likely we see ILS structures in the form of a sidecar than a flood catastrophe bond, S&P […]

Just a brief update on the stricken catastrophe bond Gator Re Ltd., the fate of which has yet to be fully resolved as just under $17.78 million of principal remains outstanding and the notes have been extended for another month into July.

Taiwan’s Council of Agriculture (COA) has announced plans to expand its disaster insurance programme for the agricultural sector to include rice and bananas, suggesting a need for greater reinsurance capacity and the potential for the capital markets to play a role in the future.

Analysis from global property information, analytics and data-enabled service provider, CoreLogic, reveals that almost 6.9 million homes along the Atlantic and Gulf coasts, with a combined reconstruction cost value (RCV) of over $1.5 trillion, are at risk of hurricane storm surge inundation.

European pension funds have been increasing their allocations to alternative investments and this looks to have been benefitting the insurance-linked securities (ILS) space, with the percentage of EU pension funds that have an allocation to ILS doubling in the last year, according to consultancy Mercer.

Hudson Structured Capital Management, the ILS, reinsurance and transportation finance investment firm established by ex-Goldman Sachs structured finance head Mike Millette, has added Jason Carne, who previously headed up ILS at KPMG Bermuda, to the advisory board of its Bermuda entity.