March 2009/1

Contingent capital, pre-event bond issuance and private reinsurance products are emerging as the favoured solutions for funding the Florida Hurricane Catastrophe Fund’s (FHCF) potential $21bn c

Liberty Mutual has completed its third Mystic Re series cat bond – a $225mn US wind and quake transaction – taking 2009 insurance-linked securities (ILS) issuance to $575mn. The size of t

Hannover Re has finally closed its $200mn sidecar, Kepler Re, three months ahead of its scheduled maturity, after shelving the renewal of the vehicle earlier this year due to market conditions. Hanno

The lead managers on SCOR’s $200mn Atlas V cat bond noted a shift in investor attitudes during the six-month gestation of the first deal to close in 2009. Erik Manning, of structuring agent and

Ratings agencies Standard & Poor’s (S&P), AM Best and Moody’s have trimmed the ratings of troubled reinsurance giant Swiss Re on the back of its abysmal 2008 results. AM Best downgraded S

Moody’s Investors Service has put $67.5mn of the notes on Glacier Re’s $180mn Nelson Re cat bond on review for a possible downgrade after the (re)insurer significantly upped its Hurricane

SCOR has updated the notional portfolios used to model the attachment and exhaustion points on its catastrophe bonds Atlas Re III and Atlas Re IV, in a reset which became effective on 9 February. Acc

As the cat bond market re-opens following a six-month hiatus, ratings agency Fitch has praised recent changes in cat bond investment guidelines and swap counterparty structures as “positive

Ratings agency Standard & Poor’s (S&P) has extended the maturity date of excess liability company Oil Casualty Insurance’s indemnity-triggered casualty cat bond, Avalon Re, by a further t

Global broker Aon Benfield has established a new investment management firm as part of its bid to launch a dedicated insurance-linked securities (ILS) fund, in what has been described as a “ver

The closure of SCOR’s $200mn Atlas V cat bond in February marked the end of an issuance drought, opening the pipeline for two more deals that closed in early March. Atlas V – which provi

PERILS – the Swiss firm established to develop the much-anticipated European industry loss index – is targeting medium-sized and regional insurers in order to gather sufficient market dat

Ratings agency Standard & Poor’s (S&P) has posted a negative outlook on State Farm and RenRe’s $100mn joint venture sidecar-style transaction Top Layer Re, on the back of a recent action

Fitch Ratings has upgraded the class B notes of Fremantle – Brit Insurance’s three-year catastrophe swap deal – as the likelihood of a loss is diminishing with the risk period movin

Standard & Poor’s (S&P) has withdrawn its ratings on three bank loans issued by Emerson Re – the $500mn all-debt sidecar vehicle set up by Citadel’s CIG Re and New Castle Re in 2007

US insurer Chubb completed its $150mn East Lane Re III Florida wind indemnity cat bond earlier this month, demonstrating that the insurance-linked securities (ILS) market is open once again. Goldman

(Re)insurance broker Willis Group has developed a parametric index for offshore Gulf of Mexico (GOM) energy exposures, which it hopes will help halt the shrinking of the pool of capacity for the peri

Cat bond structurers are exploring alternative European jurisdictions for special purpose reinsurance vehicle (SPRV) incorporation, after the Irish regulator forced two re-writes of the Atlas V trans

Berkshire Hathaway’s (BH) appetite for catastrophe reinsurance has been blunted and the company will sell less in 2009 in order to protect its capital cushion, according to chairman Warren Buff

The Class A notes of Ajax Re – Aspen Insurance’s $100mn 2007 earthquake cat bond – have been placed on CreditWatch negative by ratings agency Standard & Poor’s (S&P), as it aw