July 2013/1

First half returns among ILS fund managers are slightly behind last year's performance over the same period, according to results from a group of seven cat bond funds tracked by Trading Risk.

The spate of new cat bond issuance in June helped boost trading activity on the secondary market as the US hurricane season started.

The number of unrated cat bonds has increased sharply in 2013 as sponsors forego the expense of seeking a rating

More than $1bn of new issuance has been marketed in the past six weeks in a hectic start to summer for the ILS market, with four new bonds confirming Trading Risk's prediction last month that a flurry of deals was about to emerge.

ILS fund managers have perhaps never faced a more challenging time to keep their capital inflows in pace with investment opportunities, despite making significant inroads into the property catastrophe reinsurance market and with ILS issuance on track for a bumper year

The London-listed Blue Capital Global Reinsurance Fund has deployed $144.7mn through the Blue Water Master Fund, equivalent to 97 percent of its net proceeds.

Bermuda's minister of economic development Grant Gibbons says that helping to build on momentum in the ILS market is an important part of government plans to boost the island's economy

AlphaCat, the managed funds division at Bermudian reinsurer Validus, will take an $0.1mn loss from the flooding in Central Europe in May and June while Swiss ILS fund manager Eskatos reported "limited" reserves for potential claims.

Capital market interest is pouring into the facultative markets as it has into property catastrophe markets, said GC Fac's head of US facultative risk John Trace, at a recent roundtable hosted by sister publication Inside FAC.

Judy Klugman was named the Outstanding Contributor of the Year at the Trading Risk Awards 2013, held at London's Globe Theatre in June

After a runaway first half for cat bonds, talk about "decoupling" from the reinsurance markets is one of the themes of 2013 as capital market participants take the lead in setting their own pricing.

Citi and Pension Insurance Corporation (PIC) have executed the largest ever pension insurance buyout in a deal covering £1.5bn of liabilities and 20,000 members of the EMI group pension fund