March 2009/1

Berkshire Hathaway’s (BH) appetite for catastrophe reinsurance has been blunted and the company will sell less in 2009 in order to protect its capital cushion, according to chairman Warren Buff

Ratings agencies Standard & Poor’s (S&P), AM Best and Moody’s have trimmed the ratings of troubled reinsurance giant Swiss Re on the back of its abysmal 2008 results. AM Best downgraded S

As the cat bond market re-opens following a six-month hiatus, ratings agency Fitch has praised recent changes in cat bond investment guidelines and swap counterparty structures as “positive

The Class A notes of Ajax Re – Aspen Insurance’s $100mn 2007 earthquake cat bond – have been placed on CreditWatch negative by ratings agency Standard & Poor’s (S&P), as it aw

SCOR has updated the notional portfolios used to model the attachment and exhaustion points on its catastrophe bonds Atlas Re III and Atlas Re IV, in a reset which became effective on 9 February. Acc

Ratings agency Standard & Poor’s (S&P) has extended the maturity date of excess liability company Oil Casualty Insurance’s indemnity-triggered casualty cat bond, Avalon Re, by a further t

Ratings agency Standard & Poor’s (S&P) has posted a negative outlook on State Farm and RenRe’s $100mn joint venture sidecar-style transaction Top Layer Re, on the back of a recent action

Global broker Aon Benfield has established a new investment management firm as part of its bid to launch a dedicated insurance-linked securities (ILS) fund, in what has been described as a “ver