June 2009/1

Swiss Re and Guy Carpenter are bringing a $100-150mn cat bond to market on behalf of the North Carolina Joint Underwriting Association (NCJUA), in order to fill gaps left in its 1 June reinsurance pr

More than $1.7bn of sidecar capacity was secured by reinsurers looking to cash in on attractive underwriting conditions and potential capacity shortages in the first half of 2009, despite “diff

Standard & Poor’s (S&P) has cited Hannover Re’s retro strategy as a factor in deciding to downgrade the outlook to negative on the reinsurer’s AA- credit and insurer financial stren

Cat risk appetite showed signs of reappearing from the hedge fund community, as two alternative investment specialists unveiled forays into insurance-linked investments this month. Cartesian Capital

Nephila Capital has secured a new $35mn investment mandate from specialist fund manager AMP Capital Investors, further widening the audience for trading (re)insurance risk in the mainstream capital m

Traditional US reinsurance markets have recently shown significant capacity constraints, driving reinsurance rates upward and supporting catastrophe bond pricing at high levels. Reinsurance rates for

The mysterious US investment fund which owns the outstanding positions in Aspen Insurance’s beleaguered cat bond, Ajax Re, is tussling with the administrators of the Lehman Brother’s bank

With $1.385bn of US wind and quake peril securitised to date in 2009, and another $100-150mn in the pipeline (see p1) insurance-linked securities (ILS) investors called for peril diversification as t

A clear pipeline for new cat bond issuance in early June proved a fillip for secondary trading, with volumes and pricing increasing on US and non-US peril bonds. “In the first ten days of June

Global broker Aon Benfield has suspended its fundraising efforts for Aon’s investment management firm Global Insurance Strategies LLC (GIS), as it concentrates on Benfield-backed cat fund manag

The ILS market is braced for upcoming changes to California earthquake models that may reduce the estimated hazard resulting from a temblor by up to 35 percent. Upcoming releases from the two main p

Insurance-linked securities (ILS) sponsor USAA – which issued its thirteenth consecutive cat bond last month – has set a new disclosure standard for (re)insurers by posting data on all of