risk

Four years after the huge earthquake and tsunami devastated Tohoku, Japan, a new study has identified over 20 global subduction zones with the potential to produce an event of similar scale.

Elementum Advisors, an independent investment advisor focusing on the reinsurance-linked investments space including catastrophe bonds, collateralized reinsurance, industry loss warranties and catastrophe derivatives, has announced two new hires which it says will significantly strengthen the depth of its legal, compliance and operational infrastructure. The two hires come from law firm Sidley Austin and Legal & […]

The risk of Japan suffering another major earthquake has increased since the M9.0 Tohoku quake of March 2011 according to research from risk modeller AIR Worldwide. In a report published yesterday AIR discuss the way the energy released by the massive quake last year has put stress on other areas of fault lines throughout the […]

The options available to investors seeking to access non-correlated returns by investing in insurance and reinsurance linked asset classes which are correlated to catastrophe events and not to the wider financial markets are growing. As different types of reinsurance vehicles emerge and new ways to structure and trigger insurance-linked securities and catastrophe bonds are found, […]

The Verisk Catastrophe Index created by risk information and analysis firm Verisk Analytics just over a year ago, has won an industry award naming it the Re/Insurance Initiative of the Year at the Worldwide Reinsurance Awards in London recently. The catastrophe index provides high resolution insured property loss estimates, by county and line of business, […]

Ratings agency Standard & Poor’s has issued a press release to say that they are keeping an eye on the progress of hurricane Irene as she approaches the U.S. coastline in case the storm has any impact on any catastrophe bonds that they provide ratings for. A number of catastrophe bonds have potential exposure to […]

Many weather and peril re/insurance pricing decisions have tended to be made based on analysis of historical data rather than on forecasts. Historical data has always been seen as the best way to predict weather trends and assess riskiness of a specific peril in a specific geographic location. Forecasts were seen as too inaccurate and […]

Verisk Analytics, the parent company of AIR Worldwide and the Property Claims Services (PCS) brands, has expanded its Verisk Catastrophe Index to include U.S. earthquake risks. When the index was launched in July last year it only covered U.S. hurricane risks but Verisk planned to broaden its coverage to include other perils such as tropical […]

A report published today by Mercer and a group of leading global investors concludes that continuing to delay on climate change policy action and a lack of international coordination could cost institutional investors trillions of dollars. Failure to factor climate change into a long term investment strategy could result in both losses and missed opportunities.

Standard & Poor’s has issued a report which reiterates that one of the key exposures in a securitization transaction (that includes insurance-linked securitization through catastrophe bonds) is counterparty risk. The risk of a counterparty being unable to meet its obligations within a transaction is central to S&P’s analysis of creditworthiness.