October 2011/1

Scor used just a quarter of its retro protection in the first nine months of the year, but still ceded EUR297mn of cat claims to its retrocessionaires during the period.

Latest industry loss figures from this year's US tornado outbreak have risen to $836.6mn, causing a total loss to the first tranche of American Family Mutual's Mariah Re 2010 cat bond notes and seeping $11.6mn into the higher layer of notes.

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, managing director Judy Klugman has said.

London-listed collateralised reinsurance fund manager Catco is considering fundraising options to take advantage of a forecast capacity crunch in the high-severity retrocession market at the January 2012 renewals.

A number of insurance-linked investment managers are locked into the bitter final stages of a beauty parade, seeking to attract the attention of pension fund investors to secure further inflow of capital for the remainder of the year.

Chicago-based insurance-linked investment manager Elementum Advisors has launched a Bermudian management firm, Trading Risk can reveal.

Scor Alternative Investments (SAI) aims to fully deploy the $100mn seed capital invested by parent company Scor in its new Atropos ILS fund by year-end, Trading Risk can report.

New Zealand earthquake losses may have prompted some traditional reinsurers to question the value of lower-paying international risk this year, but the ILS market still seems intent on adding more breadth.

RMS RiskMarkets director Ben Brookes examines the impact of RMS US Hurricane Model Version 11 on ILS pricing

Irene triggers $20mn CHI payout; Cat in a box; WeatherBill renames

Guy Carpenter tips the industry loss warranty (ILW) market to enjoy the fastest growth among capital markets products over the next three years.

Disputes and wording issues over industry loss warranty (ILW) payouts are becoming increasingly common as recent catastrophe losses provide a test of trigger mechanisms, LG Legal partner Antony Woodhouse says.

Euro wind models updated; Hurricane RMS overblown; Jova weakens upon strike

The administrator for the Nelson Re cat bond is fighting bond sponsor Glacier Re's claims that Hurricane Ike losses should be covered by bondholders.

Munich Re, Berkshire Hathaway, PartnerRe, Swiss Re and Top Layer Re (RenRe) are likely to take upwards of one third of the circa $1.75bn deterioration of Zenkyoren's Japan loss estimate, according to reports from sister publication The Insurance Insider.

RMS puts Paradex Roke damage at $1.4bn; Perils benefits from private market growth; Greenlight upgraded; Endurance promotes ILS expert

Loss compilation agency Property Claims Services (PCS) has placed insured losses from Hurricane Irene at $3.65bn, Trading Risk understands.

Ironically it wasn't the traditional market but comments about the ILS sector that sparked a dispute between Aon Benfield Analytics chairman Bryon Ehrhart and Catlin CEO Stephen Catlin at a Monte Carlo roundtable hosted by sister publication The Insurance Insider.

A portion of MultiCat Mexico's $50mn Class C notes changed hands in the secondary cat bond market as Hurricane Jova sped towards Mexico's Pacific coast earlier this month, Trading Risk understands.

The frenetic search for diversifying cat bond exposures has slowed as investors turn their attentions to seeking yield, Trading Risk understands.

The Swiss Re cat bond price return index has recovered from its slump at the time of Hurricane Irene, returning to trading levels last seen in March around the time of the Tohoku earthquake.

Secondary trading prices on the Mariah Re tornado bond continued to fall this month as the market anticipated significant losses on the notes.

Two "club" cat bonds circulated privately to a limited group of investors in September have added to the debate over the direction of the bond market.

Brokers say that the 1 January 2012 retrocession renewals may focus as much on the fine print of contract cover as pricing, as supply and demand in the niche market appear to be more in tune than was predicted earlier this year.