November 2016/1

Four weeks on from Hurricane Matthew, cat bond spreads have slipped back in to a pattern of slight softening, according to data from RMS.

Cat bond specialist Fermat believes the trend towards cat bond lite and hybrid private ILS transactions will "level the playing field" compared to collateralised and traditional reinsurance alternatives

The first cat bond issuance of the fourth quarter garnered strong investor interest as sources said they expected lacklustre deal volume in the period.

Deutsche Asset & Wealth Management's ILS fund has withdrawn from writing collateralised retro business and is now focused on cat bond investing, sources told Trading Risk.

Casualty risk offers an opportunity for the ILS industry to expand beyond catastrophe business, according to Willis Capital Markets & Advisory's head of ILS Bill Dubinsky

LGT ILS Partners said that it believes a highly rated carrier backed by a collateralised ILS fund could add value to the reinsurance market.

When you've been writing editorials for a few years, the ghosts of columns past inevitably come back to haunt you.

The insurance risk transfer chain is becoming more flexible as ILS players begin taking on primary risk, but this does not necessarily imply links are being removed from the chain, panellists said at the Trading Risk New York Rendez-Vous

Validus intends to add $300mn-$500mn to its asset management platform AlphaCat to deploy in 2017, CEO Ed Noonan said in comments after the company's Q3 earnings release.

Reinsurance buyers speaking at the Trading Risk New York Rendez-Vous were split on whether sponsoring cat bonds would offer them the benefit of lower rates, as they debated the dip in ILS issuance this year

Hedge fund manager Elliott Management Corporation plans to hold onto its investment in Aeolus Capital Management "for a long time", the Bermudian ILS manager's founder Peter Appel told Trading Risk.