March 2014/1

Don Kramer's ILS Capital Management has bound about $150mn of reinsurance limit since it began underwriting in the January renewals, sources told Trading Risk.

Gregor Gawron and two other former ILS executives from Falcon Private Bank have re-emerged at Zurich-based investment management firm Dynapartners and are launching a new cat bond fund, Trading Risk understands.

US broker-dealer regulator the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority (Finra) is planning to disseminate pricing and volume information on catastrophe bond trades completed by its members from the end of June.

The flurry of primary cat bond issuance over the past month has sparked secondary trading interest around some of the new bonds, as some ILS traders questioned whether the market is reaching a floor.

Two of the most recent cat bond deals have highlighted the challenges of providing ILS investors with a multi-model view of risk on complex indemnity covers.

Cat bond issuance activity is expected to gather pace heading into the second quarter after strong demand continued to squeeze premiums on recent deals.

New rated reinsurance vehicles may be being driven by investors wanting access to particular asset managers' strategies, but there remains some capital markets interest in casualty risk for its own sake.

Bond insurer Assured Guaranty is looking to offer fronting services to ILS funds, Trading Risk understands.

It's maybe a bit ironic for the editor of a convergence magazine to be sceptical of the impact that new capital vehicles will have on the market.

As two reinsurance vehicles backed by asset managers moved closer to launch this month, casualty market participants are speculating that these new start-ups may lead to a similar revolution to that which has transformed the property cat sector.

PartnerRe is looking to bring capital market investors onto its panel of crop retrocessionaires, Trading Risk can report.