June 2014/1

The first two cat bonds to come to market after the hurricane season opened provided an indication of continued pressure on spreads.

Can the Sharpe ratio be applied to ILS?

The US Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) issued a letter last month that suggests that directors of catastrophe bond issuers may have to seek no-action relief from the CFTC from registration as commodity pool operators (CPOs).

As the property cat reinsurance market continues to soften, many state-backed US insurance pools are significantly expanding their levels of cover.

Caelus Re sponsor Nationwide has successfully placed a four-year tranche of cover on its traditional reinsurance programme, highlighting the trend for carriers to provide multi-year placements, sister publication The Insurance Insider has revealed.

This year's Florida renewals were characterised by a significantly wider range of quoting behaviour than in 2013, brokers said.

Universal retains more risk; RenRe partly places Florida retro; Heritage takes on Sunshine policies

Bermudian reinsurers have taken advantage of falling rates and ceded a significantly higher proportion of their business to retro writers in the first quarter of 2014, according to analysis from sister publication Inside Data.

In this special project, Trading Risk worked with modelling agencies to highlight the range of expected loss outcomes from cascading annual aggregate cat bonds.

The Coca-Cola Company's pension fund has a 5 percent allocation to the ILS sector spread across two mandates, including London-based ILS fund manager Securis Investment Partners.

US insurer Travelers is being considered as a potential strategic partner for the proposed Bermudian start-up reinsurer Golub Capital Re as it continues to work toward a targeted summer launch.

The price of the $500mn Tar Heel 2013-1 cat bond has fallen faster than the rest of the market in recent months, pricing sheets obtained by Trading Risk show.