June 2009/1

The mysterious US investment fund which owns the outstanding positions in Aspen Insurance’s beleaguered cat bond, Ajax Re, is tussling with the administrators of the Lehman Brother’s bank

More than $1.7bn of sidecar capacity was secured by reinsurers looking to cash in on attractive underwriting conditions and potential capacity shortages in the first half of 2009, despite “diff

Forecasting hurricane activity is rarely accurate, and should therefore not be relied on for making investment decisions in the sector, according to analysis from Numis Securities.  Numis added that

Swiss Re and Guy Carpenter are bringing a $100-150mn cat bond to market on behalf of the North Carolina Joint Underwriting Association (NCJUA), in order to fill gaps left in its 1 June reinsurance pr

With $1.385bn of US wind and quake peril securitised to date in 2009, and another $100-150mn in the pipeline (see p1) insurance-linked securities (ILS) investors called for peril diversification as t

A clear pipeline for new cat bond issuance in early June proved a fillip for secondary trading, with volumes and pricing increasing on US and non-US peril bonds. “In the first ten days of June

Cat risk appetite showed signs of reappearing from the hedge fund community, as two alternative investment specialists unveiled forays into insurance-linked investments this month. Cartesian Capital

Global broker Aon Benfield has suspended its fundraising efforts for Aon’s investment management firm Global Insurance Strategies LLC (GIS), as it concentrates on Benfield-backed cat fund manag

Insurance-linked securities (ILS) sponsor USAA – which issued its thirteenth consecutive cat bond last month – has set a new disclosure standard for (re)insurers by posting data on all of

Oil and gas liability mutual Oil Casualty Insurance Ltd (OCIL)’s 2005 excess liability cat bond Avalon Re has once again extended the maturity date on its Class B and Class C notes to 9 Septemb

CCRIF into 3rd year with 10 percent rate cut Reinsurance broker Aon Benfield has confirmed that all 16 Caribbean member governments have renewed their catastrophe policies with the World Bank-sponso

Traditional US reinsurance markets have recently shown significant capacity constraints, driving reinsurance rates upward and supporting catastrophe bond pricing at high levels. Reinsurance rates for

June has seen the first signs of easing in the sky-high prices that have all but frozen the industry loss warranties (ILW) market in 2009. However, ILW pricing may have to fall a further 10-15 percen

ISDA OTC template launched After two years of market consultation, the International Swaps and Derivatives Association (ISDA) has launched a standard template for trading US wind event futures. ISDA

Dan Ozizmir has become the most high profile casualty of Swiss Re’s ongoing overhaul of its insurance-linked securities (ILS) operations, Trading Risk can reveal.  The head of the reinsurer

Standard & Poor’s (S&P) has cited Hannover Re’s retro strategy as a factor in deciding to downgrade the outlook to negative on the reinsurer’s AA- credit and insurer financial stren

The ILS market is braced for upcoming changes to California earthquake models that may reduce the estimated hazard resulting from a temblor by up to 35 percent. Upcoming releases from the two main p

Nephila Capital has secured a new $35mn investment mandate from specialist fund manager AMP Capital Investors, further widening the audience for trading (re)insurance risk in the mainstream capital m

Eurex, the leading European derivative exchange and clearing house, is to launch binary US hurricane derivatives on 29 June, complementing current over-the-counter (OTC) trades. The exchange –