April 2009/1

The Chicago Mercantile Exchange (CME) has acquired the Carvill Hurricane Index from the erstwhile broker, renamed it CME Hurricane Index (CHI) and appointed risk modeller EQECAT as calculation agent

Allianz’s 2008 Blue Coast cat bond has been placed on negative watch due to fears that hurricanes Ike and Gustav will trigger a loss on it. If the bond were to suffer a loss it would be the six

An anticipated $3bn in insurance linked securities (ILS) issuance for 2009 will not provide much-needed net growth to the market, but will only replace capacity from maturing deals, according to indu

Nephila-backed weather risk service WeatherBill has launched a screen-based underwriting and trading platform. The WeatherBill White Label platform enables any third party to offer weather coverage t

Temporarily distracted by tempting returns in other asset classes, multi-strategy investors consider insurance-linked securities (ILS) as a solid diversifying asset and demonstrate a high tolerance o

Investors in the $33.5mn class G notes of closed sidecar Puma Capital are still vulnerable to losses from Hurricane Ike, despite the vehicle ceasing to write new business in April of last year. The $

The ILS sector is maturing and now offers sufficient breadth and depth – through sidecars, catastrophe bonds, insurance-linked derivatives and other products – to provide real risk transf

Nephila-backed weather risk service WeatherBill has launched a screen-based underwriting and trading platform. The WeatherBill White Label platform enables any third party to offer weather coverage t

Dedicated insurance-linked derivatives broker Myrias LLC is developing a screen-based trading platform, aimed at standardising the trading of industry loss warranties (ILW) and cat bonds in the secon

The latest cat bond to hit the market – Allianz’s upsized $180mn Blue Fin II – has eschewed the traditional total return swap (TRS) structure to invest collateral in notes issued b

Bermudian insurance-linked investment manager Pentelia Capital Management has tapped the Japanese investor market to raise $132mn for a new dedicated cat fund – Eolia Diamond Ltd. Pentelia R

A dislocation in pricing between cat bonds and the traditional reinsurance market may dampen the appetite of potential new ILS sponsors in 2009, according to Ming Lee, president and CEO of modelling