May 2009/1

ILS investors are so keen to diversify their holdings with non-catastrophe exposures that they may be willing to trade yield for greater choice. Speaking at the S&P European ILS conference on the 13

Despite mutterings of discontent in some corners of the investor community on loss-stricken liability cat bond Avalon Re, secondary market pricing still reflects only an anticipated partial loss on t

Munich Re and Tokio Marine Nichido Fire’s private cat swap based on Risk Management Solutions’ (RMS) Paradex-Europe Windstorm (PEW) index takes the total notional amount of risk transferr

US military mutual insurer and ILS stalwart USAA has increased the size of its thirteenth consecutive cat bond, Residential Re 2009, by $90mn - to $240mn - Trading Risk can reveal. Goldman Sachs, whi

PERILS AG, established this year to aggregate and provide industry-wide European catastrophe insurance data, has estimated property insurance market losses caused by windstorm Klaus of EUR1.55bn. The

Will investor demand for long-tail macro longevity risk be sufficient to meet the anticipated supply from corporate pension funds in the wake of Babcock International Group’s planned £750mn lon

German reinsurance giant Munich Re has launched a EUR100mn European windstorm and Turkish earthquake cat bond – Ianus – which will be welcomed by those calling for peril diversification i

A second Lehman Brothers-backed catastrophe bond is in default after issuer Ajax Re failed to repay the principal at the 8 May redemption date, according to AM Best which downgraded and withdrew its

The recent outbreak of swine flu poses little immediate threat to the sector’s three extreme mortality cat bonds, despite the global death toll reaching 74. The World Health Organisation (WHO)

A surge in recession-related credit losses has “increased the default possibility” of Swiss Re’s $252mn credit reinsurance securitisation, Crystal Credit, prompting Standard & Poor

AM Best has taken rating actions on various tranches of Merrill Lynch’s innovative 2007 collateralised debt obligation (CDO) issue, Dekania. Dekania allowed smaller US and European carriers, in

Leading ILS investor Nephila Capital and a subsidiary of Allianz Risk Transfer (ART) have tapped two investors for an extra $200mn to deploy during the 2009 US wind season. The two ILS-specialist fir