August 2009/1

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.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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.

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