October 2012/1

Capital market providers are largely creating new reinsurance demand rather than carving out capacity from the traditional market, Nephila Capital co-founder Frank Majors said at an ILS panel hosted by Munich Re at the Monte Carlo Rendez-Vous last month

Absent a shock loss in the final months of the year, premium rates are expected to slide at the key 1 January renewal, when upwards of half of all property catastrophe reinsurance business renews, Trading Risk understands

The increasing role of the capital markets in the reinsurance sector was one of the major themes of the 2012 Monte Carlo Rendez-Vous, but ratings agencies differed on the alternative market's impact

ILS fund managers are mostly on or above target for their 2012 returns at the nine-month mark as cat bond prices made strong gains throughout hurricane season, but their returns have widened considerably against the Swiss Re Global Cat Bond Total Return index benchmark.

Nephila Capital co-founder Frank Majors warned that reinsurers face a number of potential pitfalls as they target the funds management arena

Credit Suisse Asset Management ILS manager Niklaus Hilti singled out the firm's Iris Life fund as the most exciting area among its ILS strategies as the fund set a strong pace for growth in assets under management.

Capital market participants will be an essential component in the longevity risk transfer market over the long term as (re)insurers reach their limit of capacity, a Swiss Re report has found.

RenaissanceRe's Top Layer Re sidecar took total claims of $412.5mn from the New Zealand and Japanese earthquakes in 2011, according to a ratings note from Standard & Poor's

The cat bond "lites" that have come to market so far have subtracted rather than added value to the ILS product, says Bill Dubinsky, head of ILS at Willis Capital Markets and Advisory (WCMA).

Tower Watson Capital Markets has launched a new database of casualty tort information to entice the alternative reinsurance sector into the casualty risk space

Allied World has bought a substantial minority stake in private equity firm MatlinPatterson and pledged to invest $500mn through its funds

Hurricane Isaac was named a credit negative event for the Combine Re cat bond by Moody's, after the storm qualified as a covered event for cedant Country Mutual Insurance Company.