July 2014/1

The New Zealand Earthquake Commission (EQC) confirmed that a "small component" of alternative reinsurance capital is included in its 2014 programme, which renewed at 1 June at rates that were 10 percent lower than last year

Ace placed one-fifth of its consolidated property catastrophe treaty with the collateralised market at its 1 July renewal, sister publication The Insurance Insider has reported

Aon Benfield Securities has launched a new cat bond issuance platform, CATstream, following in the wake of GC Securities, JLT Capital Markets and Kane, which have set up similar ventures over the past year

The pension scheme of UK telecommunications giant BT has transferred £16bn of longevity exposure in the largest single UK pension de-risking deal to date

Secondary cat bond pricing, as measured by the Swiss Re Global Cat Bond Performance Price Return Index, took a small 0.2 percent dip in June after dropping 1 percent during April and May

Q. When is the North Atlantic hurricane season peak?

A new legacy ILS fund launched by Credit Suisse Asset Management (CSAM) and Bermudian run-off specialist Armour Group is up and running with more than $100mn of assets under management to invest in discontinued insurance books

As regulators continue to build the legal edifice of Solvency II, the European Insurance and Occupational Pensions Authority (Eiopa) has released new guidelines on basis risk and risk mitigation.

Reinsurers up stakes in funds; DCG Iris proposes wind-up; Kinesis adds $50mn limit

Traditional reinsurance carriers have provided most of the $1bn growth in capacity for retrocession products over the past year, Aon Benfield Global Re Specialty chairman Piers Cantlay said at a Guernsey ILS Insight event hosted in Zurich in July.

Half-year 2014 returns generated by the seven cat bond funds tracked by Trading Risk are on average 65 percent lower than H1 2013, as the benefit of mark-to-market gains observed last year began running out

The ILS market should look beyond cat for its growth, Secquaero Advisors chairman and managing partner Dirk Lohmann said at the Trading Risk London Executive Briefing in June.

Enstar has become the latest potential candidate for launching an investment-focused reinsurer, but panellists at a recent Trading Risk event warned that there will be tests ahead for this business model as new US proposals on their tax treatment are considered.

The Caribbean Catastrophe Risk Insurance Facility (CCRIF), through the World Bank, was one of eight new sponsors to come to the cat bond market in the first half of 2014, pushing total issuance volumes above $6bn

Order books for cat bonds are reaching historical highs for the number of investors, with 30 to 40 investors currently typical, Goldman Sachs' global head of structured finance Michael Millette said at the inaugural Trading Risk London Executive Briefing in June.

The New York Metropolitan Transportation Authority (MTA) was recognised with two honours at this year's Trading Risk awards for its inaugural 2013 cat bond, MetroCat Re.

Cat bonds have the potential to become as illiquid as private reinsurance after a catastrophe event, Credit Suisse's head of ILS Niklaus Hilti said during a panel discussion at a C5 ILS conference hosted in London this week

While most people in the northern hemisphere are on alert for barbecue weather this summer, reinsurance executives will be on a different type of weather watch - closely tracking tropical storm updates for potential threats to their portfolios

Nephila Capital provided a mammoth $550mn line on the $1.5bn traditional reinsurance programme placed by Florida Citizens Property Insurance this year

The top 10 specialist ILS managers added $2bn to their assets under management (AuM) in the first half of 2014, as the pace of new inflows slowed but remained steady, the latest Trading Risk investor survey shows