January 2015/1

Axa targeted capital market reinsurers for a new EUR100mn aggregate cover that it placed at 1 January, in an example of increased demand for protection against multiple catastrophe events, Trading Risk understands.

ILS fund managers said they observed clear evidence of a trend for greater tiering in the reinsurance market at the January renewals.

This month's edition of Trading Risk has involved a fair bit of bean counting to try to sum up the year ahead for the ILS market.

ILS broker-dealers expect cat bond issuance to hit about $8bn this year after a record-breaking 2014, as they said sponsors would continue to push new risk transfer boundaries.

Growth at the top 10 specialist ILS fund managers slowed in the second half of 2014, as the group started 2015 with a combined $40bn asset base.

BB-rated cat bond returns dropped the most in 2014, as the annual gain on the Aon Benfield BB index fell from 7.6 percent in 2013 to 2.02 percent in 2014.

Kane's segregated accounts platform has been used to list four ILS transactions on the Bermuda Stock Exchange, worth a total of $126mn in volume.

Use of aggregate cover in the ILS space will increase this year, Munich Re Capital Markets forecast in its latest report on the market

Canadian life reinsurer Aurigen has completed a C$210mn embedded value securitisation through the privately placed Valins I transaction, the company announced.