Hurricane

The US National Hurricane Center (NHC) has released its official report on Hurricane Patricia, which struck Mexico last October, with its new estimate of the storm's pressure upon landfall putting the MultiCat Mexico class C notes in line for a 50 percent payout.

The "Snowzilla" blizzard that hit the eastern US over the weekend (22-24 January) is expected to cause billion-dollar damages, Impact Forecasting said.

Sidecar returns remained in the mid-to-high teens on an annualised basis in 2015, although softening was still apparent.

Thunderstorm, flood and winter weather perils accounted for 73 percent of 2015 global insured losses from natural catastrophes, according to Aon Benfield's Impact Forecasting unit

Stone Ridge Asset Management reported annual gains ranging from 4.06 percent to 8.33 percent for its three reinsurance funds in the year to 31 October 2015, while returns from its cat bond funds almost halved, according to the manager's latest annual reports.

Two organisations have released long-range outlooks for the 2016 Atlantic hurricane season, with one agency forecasting a slightly below-normal season and the other weighing an average season as more likely.

The decade-long major US hurricane landfall "drought" since Hurricane Wilma struck in 2005 has been highlighted by the meteorological community, catastrophe modellers and the insurance sector alike as extraordinarily rare

For any ILS transaction, the structure of the trigger mechanism is critical to determining whether a sponsor receives a loss payment following a catastrophe event, thereby causing a loss to investors

The ILS funds market caught the M&A fever seen across the traditional reinsurance sector this year as its rate of growth significantly slowed

Catastrophe bonds were yielding about 16 percent more year-on-year by the end of November, according to RMS data.

There were fewer buyers of cat bonds near maturity this year than in 2014, making it more difficult for sellers looking to trade out of positions ahead of the January renewal season, sources told Trading Risk.

The ILS market is expecting a final verdict on the MultiCat Mexico class C notes in the coming weeks as "best track" data on Hurricane Patricia is expected to be released in January.