June 2011/1

Hurricane derivatives trading reached $22mn in May on the Chicago Mercantile Exchange (CME) and rival IFEX.

An influx of new capital into the industry loss-warranty (ILW) market would be timely after the market hardened in the wake of losses, broker Guy Carpenter said in a report on the June renewals.

The weather insurance derivative market grew by nearly 20 percent in the past year, a survey released by the Weather Risk Management Association (WRMA) shows.

Atlas downgraded; Top Layer affirmed

Credit Suisse renews Lincoln triple-X; Reinet ponders £400mn Pension Corp stake; AM Best cautious on life settlement securitisations; Pension swaps still in train; Life ILS ratings blow

Swiss-based ILS fund manager Secquaero Advisory has structured a EUR60mn embedded value (EV) life insurance securitisation where it will act as transformer vehicle, manager and investor.

A loss-threatened tranche of Glacier Re's multi-peril Nelson Re cat bond has been extended, pending loss developments from 2008's Hurricane Ike.

The 2011 Atlantic windstorm season officially opened on 1 June, with meteorologists again predicting a stormy season.

The new US hurricane model from Eqecat will show slightly lower expected losses from the peril than the previous version, the firm's president Bill Keogh told Trading Risk ahead of its launch in July.

Insured losses from the US tornado season are nearing the $20bn mark after storms wrought destruction across many states in late May.

A small amount of exhausted Japanese quake cat bond Muteki traded last month at 0.75 cents to the dollar.

The secondary ILS market recovered quickly last month from the shock of significant changes to hurricane risk models from leading modeller RMS.