January 2011/1

2010 wasn't the stereotypical "game of two halves" for the ILS market - it was all about two lightning-paced quarters that racked up sales figures, putting the market in a solid position to challenge the peaks of 2006/07 in the year ahead.

2011 cat bond maturities: At $3.7bn, it's not a trickle, but the flood of maturing bonds ebbs in 2011.

Major insurance-linked investor Credit Suisse Asset Management (CSAM) has withdrawn more than $400mn of industry loss warranty (ILW) capacity as pricing falls, Trading Risk can reveal.

The Swiss Re all cat bond price return index has fallen for the fourth consecutive week, closing at 97.73 on 7 January.

$20mn of notes in three new cat bonds traded shortly after launch, as investors scrambled to acquire sought-after diversifying risk, Trading Risk can reveal.

Scor files Atropos fund docs; Aviva joins LLMA; Alternative providers enter US life reinsurance market

There is growing pressure on reinsurers with exposure to September's New Zealand earthquake as the number of markets disclosing deteriorating loss estimates increases.

A healthy market in private (A)XXX US life reserve securitisations should emerge into the public limelight next year as the life securitisation market continues to recover, Swiss Re says.

Newly minted Bermuda-domiciled catastrophe fund Catco has raised $80mn through an initial public offering on the London Stock Exchange.

December's ILS brought a cornucopia of perils, structures, territories and collateral mechanisms to the market.

All three major reinsurance brokers reported a continued fall in property catastrophe reinsurance rates at the 1 January renewals, portending further price reductions for insurance-linked capital markets.

Catastrophe risk modeller Risk Management Solutions (RMS)' revised US hurricane model, set to be launched next month, is expected to significantly increase loss estimates for property catastrophe insurers.