January 2010/1

The ILS team at Swiss fund manager Partners Group is leaving the firm to launch a new investment management company.

Bermudian Harbor Point has renewed its affiliated collateralised retro facility New Point III Ltd for 2010, with capacity offering aggregate limits totalling up to $100mn.

Rating agency Standard & Poor's (S&P) has affirmed its A+ credit rating on RenaissanceRe affiliate and property catastrophe reinsurer DaVinci Re, with a stable outlook.

Fitch Ratings has affirmed the ratings on three tranches of notes and loans for State Farm's 2007 $1.2bn Merna Re cat bond, as the likelihood of a loss diminishes as the transaction moves closer to maturity in June 2010.

Swiss Re has insured SFr1.7bn of longevity risks for the Royal County of Berkshire pension fund (RCBPF) in the first pure longevity risk transfer undertaken for any government body worldwide, according to the firm.

Natural catastrophe activity remained near the levels of the previous two years in 2009, though in the absence of a significant fallout from a US hurricane this season insured losses were in the region of only $20bn, according to the latest research from Aon Benfield.

Units of the World Bank have launched a Global Index Insurance Facility (GIIF) designed to enable clearly defined natural catastrophe/weather related insurance cover to be offered to the developing world.

The newly launched PERILS European windstorm industry loss index has been chosen as the trigger on two industry loss warranty (ILW) contracts.

Re)insurance management services firm Horseshoe Group is expanding into the Cayman Islands in a bid to capture the cat bond special purpose vehicle (SPV) market.

A tranche of Munich Re's $150mn Carillon Ltd US wind cat bond has become the latest of a quartet of Lehman Brothers-affected insurance-linked securitisations to default.