May 2008/1

Ratings agency Standard & Poor’s (S&P) is set to revise its cat bond methodology, Trading Risk can reveal. The latest move comes as the ratings agencies’ models come under increasing scru

East Lane Re II US insurer Chubb Group’s $200mn cat bond, East Lane Re II, was over-subscribed, proving that a “strong” proposition can still compel investors despite the recent rel

State Farm’s 2007 landmark catastrophe bond, Merna Re, is coming under pricing pressure in the secondary market, as investors seek to sell large chunks of the investment grade notes, according

Secondary trading of insurance linked securities (ILS) was estimated to be as high as $1bn in March, with first quarter trading possibly reaching $3bn across the life and non-life cat bond sectors. T

The ILS sector is echoing the traditional (re)insurance market with both rates and terms/conditions coming under pressure, recent research has concluded. The insurance linked securities (ILS) sector,

Convergence pioneer Swiss Re has launched a new $150mn sidecar vehicle, Sector Re II, to write a quota share retrocession of the group’s global natural catastrophe and aviation catastrophe port

A total of $700mn of life and non-life insurance linked securities (ILS) have been issued to end-April 2008 – a figure which, even with a month to go before the start of the North Atlantic wind

Ratings agency Moody’s upgraded the $750mn of notes in life (re)insurer Genworth Financial’s River Lake III XXX securitisation in April, just 10 days after downgrading them. The $250mn of

UK (re)insurer Brit Insurance is the latest firm to sign up to trade insurance linked derivatives on the Insurance Futures Exchange Services (IFEX) platform. IFEX, part of Neil Eckert-founded Climate

Global insurance broker Marsh has launched a parametric insurance product based on risk modelling firm Risk Management Solutions’ (RMS) WindX parametric index. The product, called WindX-SI, can

Ratings agency AM Best is extending its insurance linked securities (ILS) rating methodology to include assessment of the basis risk carried by industry loss arranties (ILWs). In a statement, the fir

Swiss Re Global Market’s environmental and commodity markets division has entered into an emissions reduction purchase agreement with Hebei Construction Investment New Energy Co Ltd. Through th