September 2011/1

Growth in the industry loss warranty (ILW) market in the past year has led a number of brokers to bolster their dedicated expertise in the insurance derivative sector.

S&P completes RMS downgrades; Avondale downgraded on Irish concerns; JPMorgan team in new venture

Investment bank Credit Suisse has completed a £1.7bn longevity swap for British media firm ITV's pension scheme to offload the risk of the scheme's pensioners living longer than expected.

Hannover profits from retro recoveries; Greenlight in red during Q2; Slowdown costs Aon Benfield

The capital markets could provide the oil industry with more comprehensive (re)insurance cover at a more competitive price, the founders of a new ILS venture argue.

More European perils and other non-US risk could be brought to the cat bond market in the near future, broker Aon Benfield Securities predicted in its annual ILS review.

The secondary cat bond market provided high liquidity to jittery investors before Hurricane Irene struck the US, which market observers welcomed as a healthy sign as the wind season geared up.

Two cat bond deals are set to pay out more than $40mn to their sponsors due to claims from the 2011 Japanese earthquake and 2008's Hurricane Ike.

Cat bond sales in July and August reached almost $700mn, taking total sales for 2011 past the $2bn mark as four new issuances came to market.

Scor hopes to become a premier ILS fund manager as it begins marketing its new Atropos fund to investors this month - a year after Trading Risk first revealed the French reinsurer's plans to expand into third party funds management.

As the core of the convergence market prepares to descend on the wealthy principality of Monaco this month, I thought I'd give you some tips on how to arrive in style this year.

Smaller ILS fund managers criticised the limited circulation of "club" private cat bonds after it emerged that Aon Benfield Securities (ABS) privately sold a $160mn Japanese typhoon bond for Tokio Marine to a handful of larger investors.