November 2011/1

A panel of (re)insurance industry executives advised reinsurance buyers to limit exposure to capital market capacity, questioning the long-term commitment of some investors in the sector.

Nephila Capital co-founder Frank Majors encouraged a Baden-Baden reinsurance audience to embrace the convergence sector and said it offered an opportunity for all in the market.

There was a lot of lively debate to match the blustery October weather at this year's Trading Risk New York conference, but a speech from Catlin retro buyer Mark van Zanden sparked one interesting exchange with Fermat Capital founder John Seo over whether ILS investors are asking too much to take on catastrophe risk.

Cat bond premiums are far higher than they should be when analysed using investment theory models that predict low risk, diversifying assets such as ILS should earn correspondingly low returns...

ILS fund structures are coming under strain as managers direct more of their portfolios into illiquid collateralised reinsurance instruments, Albourne Partners analyst and ILS investment adviser Michael Hamer said at the Trading Risk New York conference.

Parametric insurance will make it easier for public organisations to buy insurance against catastrophes, according to Cooper Gay's Latin America CEO Steve Jackson

Trading platform ICE is continuing to list seven Ifex event-linked futures contracts after de-listing a group of the products earlier this year

Swiss Re Capital Markets hopes to attract more institutional investors to back industry loss warranty (ILW) capacity as it mulls setting up a platform to transform the derivative contracts into bond format

Aggregate industry loss warranty (ILW) covers have grown in popularity this year but there are questions over how much supply will be in the market next year

Industry loss warranty (ILW) prices have begun to drop back over the past few months from the elevated levels that had lasted ever since the Great Tohoku earthquake in March, according to brokers

Goldman Sachs subsidiaries Rothesay Life and Paternoster have bought a record £450mn of longevity cover from New Jersey-based Prudential Retirement in the largest longevity reinsurance deal for the firm to date

A US subsidiary of Prudential Financial has closed a $2bn letter of credit deal with a number of banks in the largest life securitisation since the 2008 financial crisis