August 2009/1

The cat bond market is braced for a busy year-end as the market is still “on track” for an estimated $3-4bn of new ILS issuance in 2009, according to market sources. With $1.8bn of cat bo

The C tranche of State Farm’s 2007 Merna Re transaction and the Swiss Re-sponsored Vega Capital’s class A and B notes have been upgraded by Moody’s Investors Service and Standard

The North Atlantic wind season is predicted to produce ten tropical storms, of which four will strengthen to hurricanes, according to the Colorado State University storm research team. In August the

A seepage of asbestos claims into Oil Casualty Insurance Ltd (OCIL)’s loss-stricken excess liability cat bond, Avalon Re, has thrown into question the valuation of its August tender offer to re

Outstanding cat bond capacity declined again in the second quarter by $779mn to $11.2bn, as the value of maturing bonds outstripped new issuances. This marked the second consecutive quarter in which

As predicted in July, Standard & Poor’s (S&P) lowered its ratings on four tranches of USAA’s Residential Reinsurance 2007, upon receipt of the annual reset reports from AIR Worldwide. In

Swiss Re fell back into the red for the second quarter, as worse-than-expected mark-to-market losses and writedowns returned to haunt the reinsurer. Meanwhile, Hannover Re and Munich Re fared well in

Moody’s Investors Service has maintained the ratings for Bank of Ireland’s 2007 life ILS Avondale Securities on review for possible downgrade. Moody’s said it’s review of the

Insured losses from natural catastrophes were an above average $11bn for the first half of the year, according to Munich Re. Between January and June 2009, there were 380 natural catastrophes worldwi

The received wisdom is that 2009 insurance-linked securities (ILS) issuance has been held back by the mismatch between capacity in the alternative and traditional reinsurance markets.  It is difficul

IFEX has added to its suite of event-linked futures (ELF), listing Eastern seaboard and North East US tropical wind contracts on the Chicago Climate Futures Exchange (CCFE). IFEX – which trades

Risk Management Solutions (RMS) estimates a reduction of up to 35 percent in insured loss estimates for Californian earthquake, following a revision of its North American earthquake model this month.

The two cat bonds to come to market in July both increased in size significantly during the marketing phase, evincing a strong demand from investors for new ILS issuance. North Carolina’s state

An estimated $2-2.5bn of cat bond capacity has been traded in the secondary market to date in 2009 – outstripping the $1.8bn of new issuance of insurance-linked securities (ILS) by 40 percent.

 Swiss insurer Zurich Financial Services (ZFS) has confirmed receipt of $128.5mn in paid claims from its $190mn KAMP Re cat bond, sparking a flurry of trading interest in the distressed notes. Pricin

Electronic weather trading platform Weather Risk Solutions (WRS) has fully launched a series of hurricane commodity call options, allowing traders to hedge the risk of a landfalling hurricane in 78 U

In an extract from the report – the firm’s European head of capital markets Des Potter discusses the pros and cons of non-US peril transactions. US wind is the largest global peril in the

Reinsurer SCOR has settled its long-running dispute with Highfields Capital Management, the former main minority shareholder in its 2001 sidecar vehicle Irish Reinsurance Partners (IRP) Holdings Limi