Transformer (in insurance-linked securities and reinsurance) news

Specialist Bermuda-based insurance-linked securities servicing, management, transformation and fronting firm Horseshoe Group has hired and appointed Brenton Slade, an ex-Flagstone Reinsurance executive, as its Chief Operating Officer.

Insurance and reinsurance focused rating agency A.M. Best is seeking comments from interested parties and market participants on a newly published draft criteria report titled “Rating Reinsurance/Insurance Transformer Vehicles.”

Argo Re Ltd., the Bermuda reinsurance arm of international specialty insurance and reinsurance firm Argo Group, is joining forces with specialist insurance-linked securities service firm Horseshoe Group to offer ILS fronting services to the market.

With the recent focus across the reinsurance market on alternative capital, insurance-linked securities and collateralized reinsurance, it’s interesting to discover that the California Earthquake Authority (CEA) has slightly reduced its use of fully-collateralized protection at recent renewals.

Bermuda based reinsurer Tokio Millennium Re Ltd. (TMR) has today announced its plans to change domicile and move its country of incorporation from Bermuda to Switzerland. As part of the firms ongoing commitment to growth and expansion, as it continues to contribute to parent Tokio Marine Group’s globalisation ambitions, it has been decided that Tokio Millennium […]

Reinsurer Tokio Millennium Re Ltd. has today signalled their intention to become more deeply involved in the collateralized reinsurance, insurance-linked securities, capital markets and insurance management space, with the announcement of the formation of two new corporations. The two new firms are Tokio Solution Management Ltd. (TSM), an insurance management company, and Shima Reinsurance Ltd. […]

The California Earthquake Authority (CEA) has released some details of their risk transfer and reinsurance plans for the remainder of 2012 and for 2013 after a board meeting held on the 23rd August. Documents published on the CEA’s website show that they continue to focus on achieving cost-effective risk transfer through the use of traditional […]

You’d be forgiven for thinking that the insurance-linked securities market was strictly limited to Bermuda, the Cayman Islands and occasionally Dublin, Ireland. Looking through our Deal Directory of transactions those are the main domiciles which crop up as the home of ILS and catastrophe bond issuers. However there is activity in another offshore domicile, Guernsey, […]

A division of Citigroup has been announced today as being the indenture trustee on the recently issued $150m Embarcadero Re Ltd. catastrophe bond which transferred some of the California Earthquake Authority’s (CEA) earthquake risks to the capital markets. Citigroup’s Agency and Trust Services business, acting through Citibank, N.A., will provide trustee services for the tenure […]

The California Earthquake Authority (CEA) completed a ground-breaking $150m catastrophe bond transaction through their newly set-up Embarcadero Re Bermudian reinsurance transformer vehicle at the beginning of August. The transaction was directly transferred to the capital markets through their own Bermuda SPV, thus forgoing the need for a reinsurer participating in the transaction as in their […]