ratings

Rating agency Standard & Poor’s (S&P) said on Friday that it had affirmed its ratings for 29 natural peril catastrophe bond tranches, issued by 13 different special purpose vehicle issuers, after the cat bonds had their annual resets of probability of attachment.

Recent proposals from the U.S. Securities & Exchange Commission (SEC), regarding tightening of money market fund (MMF) regulations, could impact the catastrophe bond and insurance-linked securities market. Most cat bonds, ILS and many collateralized reinsurance transactions utilise money market funds as collateral assets.

Standard & Poor’s Ratings Services has been responsible for the rating of $3.55 billion worth of natural catastrophe bonds so far this year, more than it had rated in the first seven months of the previous three years. The same period in 2010, 2011, and 2012 saw S&P rate $2.1 billion, $1.6 billion, and $3.3 […]

Ratings agency Standard & Poor’s has published two updated structured finance rating criteria reports, both of which have some relevance to anyone involved in issuance of catastrophe bonds. Updates aren’t major in either case, but it is worth casting an eye over the reports to ensure you are familiar with the latest thinking from the […]

Swiss Re’s Vega Capital Ltd. Series 2010-1 catastrophe bond transaction, which was issued on behalf of the sponsoring reinsurer in December 2010, has had its Class C notes ratings upgraded again by Moody’s on a further improved outlook thanks to a growing reserve account. This is despite the reserve account having faced a small loss […]

The Vega Capital Ltd. Series 2010-1 catastrophe bond transaction which was issued on behalf of sponsoring reinsurer Swiss Re in December 2010 has again been said to have an increasingly positive outlook by ratings agency Moody’s. Back in February Moody’s upgraded the single tranche of Class C notes issued by Vega Capital Ltd. as the […]

Swiss Re’s 2010 catastrophe bond deal Vega Capital Ltd. Series 2010-1 has had its rating upgraded by Moody’s after the deal got through its first year without any qualifying catastrophe events impacting it. This Vega Capital cat bond provides Swiss Re with cover against multi-peril losses that may result from the occurrence of up to […]

Back in December we covered ratings agency A.M. Best’s request for comments on updated draft versions of their criteria reports which apply to catastrophe bonds and sidecar reinsurance vehicles. The comment period ended last week and now A.M. Best have published the final updated versions of the criteria reports.

Ratings agency Standard & Poor’s have downgraded the issue credit rating on the Series 2010-1 notes issued by Mariah Re Ltd. from ‘CC’ to ‘D’ today. This may well be the final update on this the first of the defaulted Mariah Re severe thunderstorm catastrophe bonds which became a total loss due to the record […]

Ratings agency A.M. Best have published four updated draft criteria reports which relate to the insurance-linked securities market. They have updated and published draft criteria reports for their rating methodology for natural catastrophe bonds and sidecars. A.M. Best are requesting comments from market participants or other interested parties, so now is the time to have […]