Hurricane

Reinsurance brokers have been approaching Floridian carriers with private offerings that could replace chunks of cover bought from state-backed reinsurer the Florida Hurricane Catastrophe Fund (FHCF), sources told sister publication The Insurance Insider.

Participants in the Florida reinsurance market are expecting some $800mn-$1bn of new demand to emerge from expansive take-out companies in the 1 June renewals this year.

Florida-based managing general agency (MGA) New Paradigm Underwriters has begun writing parametric hurricane (re)insurance on Allianz paper, Trading Risk can reveal.

High-yielding cat bonds have made up two-thirds of the trades on the secondary market in the first six weeks of 2015, according to information recorded by Finra's Trace system.

Florida Citizens Property Insurance expects to include a new $500mn cat bond in its 2015 reinsurance programme as it aims to lift its cover to withstand a 1-in-100-year storm.

Florida-based think-tank the James Madison Institute (JMI) has said that the state's taxpayer-backed (re)insurance entities need to be transformed from "one-hit wonders" into institutions strong enough to withstand a string of costly hurricane seasons.

Calculation agent AIR Worldwide notified investors last night (23 December) that Hurricane Odile did not trigger a payout from the $100mn Class C tranche of the MultiCat Mexico 2012 cat bond, sources said.

Investors in the $100mn Class C tranche of the MultiCat Mexico 2012 cat bond might be safe from a 50 percent loss after the National Hurricane Center (NHC) released new data suggesting that Hurricane Odile may not be a triggering event.

Insured losses from natural catastrophes and man-made events in 2014 were 24 percent lower than last year at $34bn, according to research from Swiss Re's Sigma unit

Florida's insurer of last resort Citizens Property Insurance said that it now has the resources to cope with a 1-in-100-year storm without tapping taxpayer money, thanks to a benign year for catastrophe events combined with policy count reductions.

Oppenheimer's Master Event-Linked Bond Fund reported a 6.43 percent gain over the year to 30 September, according to its latest annual report.

Texas-based hedge fund HBK Investments has cautiously returned to investing in the ILS market, after pulling back from reinsurance in the wake of the financial crisis, sources said.