June 2010/1

A bumper May saw $1.55bn of US wind exposure hit the market through six cat bonds, in a last minute rush to place hurricane cover in the capital markets before the official start of the US storm season on 1 June.

Swiss independent asset manager Horizon 21 is exiting the ILS market as part of a wider restructuring of the firm, Trading Risk understands.

Munich Re has launched a $100mn-plus cat bond on behalf of the Massachusetts state-sponsored windstorm insurance pool in a deal which is expected to close on 5 July.

For a while now, the use of the words "indemnity" and "cat bond" in the same sentence has been met with a curling of the lip and a reflexive recoil from a contingent of cat fund investors.

More than $1bn of prospective convergence market investment may be postponed due to falling (re)insurance rates, wider capital markets disruption and a heavy storm forecast, Trading Risk understands.

Buying pressure from dedicated cat fund managers and traditional (re)insurers has spurred up to 70 percent rate increases on certain industry loss warranties (ILW) as the Deepwater Horizon oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico continues its seep into the convergence market.