December 2011/1

Investment bank UBS has closed its New York cat bond desk, Trading Risk understands.

Major cat fund manager Clariden Leu has re-opened its flagship Cat Bond Fund to new capital inflows, seven months after closing its doors in May last year in the face of weak ILS issuance.

Swiss-based alternative investor Twelve Capital has expanded its partnership with Bank Sarasin to sell ILS.

Kevin Callahan, convergence market rainmaker and founder of Aon Capital Markets has joined the judging panel for the Trading Risk Awards 2012.

The Mariah Re 2010-1 tornado bond has paid out the full $100mn face value to sponsor American Family Mutual Insurance, according to a statement from Standard & Poor's.

Hedge fund-backed reinsurer Third Point Re won its targeted A- financial strength rating from rating agency AM Best and was underwriting risks incepting at 1 January 2012.

This year will just fall short of overtaking 2005 as the most expensive year ever for the insurance industry, according to estimates from Swiss Re.

Nephila adds another $20mn to CEA line; Catco funds near $900mn

The best and worst years over the past decade for the ILS market provided the greatest test of fund managers' mettle, according to data compiled by advisory firm bfinance.

Broker-dealer Swiss Re Capital Markets traded $800mn of cat bonds in 2011, proving liquidity during live natural catastrophe events.

2011 has been another stop-start year for the cat bond market as it navigated several major obstacles but sales are now accelerating strongly into 2012.

Traders at Goldman Sachs and Swiss Re are the only broker-dealers authorised to trade cat bonds for their own account, according to a Trading Risk survey.

Is the ILS investor base becoming too top-heavy?

Proposed SEC securitisation reforms threaten to wrap more red tape around the ILS market. Dewey & LeBoeuf partner Stephen Rooney lays out the case for ILS to be set apart

As a large number of 2009 vintage cat bonds roll-off over the next six months, investors are on the hunt for remaining yield in the transactions now that the US wind season is over.

Glacier Re extends Nelson; Top staff depart Kane; Swiss Re CEO to retire

Four new cat bonds closed in December, adding $1.26bn to the market as investors placed large orders for aggregate deals offering double-digit premiums.

Lloyd's (re)insurer Catlin expects that more than two-thirds of its retrocession recoveries from a significant catastrophe could come from collateralised markets, according to a presentation made during the firm's fourth quarter investor day last week.

Prudential Retirement has reinsured about one-sixth of the Rolls-Royce pension fund swap closed by Deutsche Bank earlier this month.

Industry loss aggregator Perils will track data on inland flooding losses in the UK from 1 January 2012, providing a benchmark for risk transfer of the peril.

Turmoil on the European markets appeared to spur new inflows into the ILS sector this year as investors sought returns from an asset class that does not follow the fortunes of general equities, according to Swiss Re's head of non-life transformation Martin Bisping.

Losses from the developing Thai floods and loss creep from March's Japanese earthquake are likely to fall disproportionately with retro writers, our sister title The Insurance Insider has revealed.

It has been a hard slog fundraising for some of the new ILS fund managers over the past six months, with only a couple managing to attract new capital by year-end.

The retro market is shaping up for a tough renewal, as buyers and sellers square up over structure, available capacity and pricing right as the crucial 1 January deadline approaches.

Investors may be preparing to contest a decision that at a stroke added more than $100mn to the loss tally for the Mariah Re tornado bonds, wiping out the higher-lying $100mn issuance, Trading Risk can reveal.