March 2017/1

Axis Ventures premium; RMS agricultural add-on; Hannover retro hit; Catalina owners consider options; MyLotto24 jackpot fails to trigger reinsurance; Long-tail models; Allied's Aeolus pledge; Mexico ILS renewal

US property cat specialist Icat and its parent Paraline Group have appointed Evercore to advise on strategic options that could include an eventual sale, sister publication The Insurance Insider reported.

US tornadoes, a hailstorm in Sydney and European windstorm Egon are among the notable catastrophe losses so far this year.

XL-owned ILS manager New Ocean has set up a new third-party capital vehicle that follows an algorithmic trading strategy, Trading Risk revealed earlier this month.

Brit's addition of North American property insurance binder business to its Versutus sidecar was a further example of carriers offering capital market investors access to primary insurance portfolios, following the Limestone vehicle launched by Liberty Mutual this year.

Aberdeen ups Blue Capital stake; Korean ILS interest; Plenum fund grows; ILS returns

The Gaia cat bond fund is one of two managed by Schroders to be soft-closed to new investment this month, according to reports.

Issuers are increasingly choosing World Bank debt as the investment vehicle for cat bond collateral, following an uptick in US Libor yields throughout 2016

Credit Suisse is approaching investors to sound out market appetite for further Operational Re cat bond draw-downs, after agreeing its first deal last year, Trading Risk understands.

Deutsche Bank has merged its ILS staff into its investment banking coverage.

Cat bond spreads rose slightly throughout February but yields remained below levels that prevailed on the ILS market a year ago, according to data from RMS.

Several ILS sponsors have taken advantage of a softening cat bond market in recent weeks, as insurance spreads on new deals dropped 12 percent on a weighted average basis during the marketing process, according to Trading Risk data.

The World Bank is set to complete a risk transfer later this year as part of its Pandemic Emergency Financing Facility (PEF), according to Michael Bennett, head of derivatives and structured finance at the organisation

Pressure from ratings agencies to strengthen capital positions could force some Florida insurers to retrench, potentially reducing reinsurance demand, UPC Insurance chief financial officer Brad Martz said at the Sifma IRLS conference

A reinsurance trading platform that is targeting up to a $1bn launch in 2018 begun its first simulation this month, with a group of 30-40 individuals from various ILS funds and reinsurance participants lined up to test the technology.

Reinsurers live and die by their claims-paying ability, and the ILS market is no different.

Florida provides two-thirds of the exposure and margin in the reinsurance industry's US wind portfolio, according to data from Aon Benfield

American Strategic Insurance has received its first payout from the Gator Re cat bond to help meet storm losses incurred last year, despite some investors suggesting that certain claims should not be covered by the transaction, Trading Risk understands.

The outlook for reinsurance demand growth in Florida is more subdued than in past years, although the environment remains changeable several months from the 1 June renewal.

Liberty Mutual's new Limestone Re sidecar could pave the way for further disintermediation in the (re)insurance sector, a Standard & Poor's (S&P) insurance analyst said at the Sifma IRLS conference in Miami last month

Electronic trading in the secondary cat bond market may still be a distant prospect, according to panellists at the Sifma IRLS 2017 conference in Miami

Demotech said it would not downgrade any of the Florida insurers it rates below an A level after carriers committed to recapitalise and review loss reserves.