ILWs

Reinsurer PartnerRe leverages its catastrophe and life underwriting expertise as an active ILS investor. Brian Tobben, head of PartnerRe's ILS unit, discusses his view of the convergence markets.

In our regular ILW quarterly update, Willis Re executive director Henry Kingham sees strong Q2 ILS issuance starving ILW buyers of capital markets capacity. ILWs now offer a hard market haven for those with the cash to invest...

ILS investors are still keen to invest and diversify their portfolios despite a glut of US wind catastrophe bond issues this season, says a report from reinsurance broker Willis Re.

German reinsurer Munich Re and transformer vehicle Allianz Risk Transfer (ART) have chosen European industry loss index Perils AG as the trigger on a EUR50mn private capital markets transaction.

ILS investors are still keen to invest and diversify their portfolios despite a glut of US wind catastrophe bond issues this season, says a report from reinsurance broker Willis Re.

Dedicated cat funds - usually considered protection sellers of industry loss warranty (ILW) and cat derivatives contracts - have become buyers of cover in an effort to hedge heavy US wind exposures and potential Deepwater Horizon losses.

Trading of 2010 catastrophe derivatives on the Chicago Mercantile Exchange (CME) and Chicago Climate Futures Exchange (CCFE) reached $44mn as the US wind season officially opened this month.

Buying pressure from dedicated cat fund managers and traditional (re)insurers has spurred up to 70 percent rate increases on certain industry loss warranties (ILW) as the Deepwater Horizon oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico continues its seep into the convergence market.

Ex-Tradition Re brokers Patrick Gonneli and Stephen Breen have brokered $10mn of CME Hurricane Index (CHI) cat options in their first trade at new employer, TigerRisk.

Tradition Re has ceased to broker reinsurance business, and will instead focus on its core derivatives trading activities, according to sources.

Losses from the Deepwater Horizon oil rig disaster in the Gulf of Mexico (GoM) threaten to spill over into the convergence market, as various industry loss warranty (ILW) and collateralised reinsurance programmes could be triggered by the estimated $2bn event.

Stephen Breen and Patrick Gonelli have left interdealer broker Tradition Re to join US reinsurance brokerage TigerRisk Partners, Trading Risk can reveal.