ILS

Nine months after the devastation inflicted by Superstorm Sandy, the New York Metropolitan Transportation Authority (MTA) is gearing up to issue the first cat bond to cover storm surge.

Capital market interest is pouring into the facultative markets as it has into the property catastrophe markets, GC Fac's head of US facultative risk John Trace said at a recent roundtable hosted by sister publication Inside FAC.

Cat bond sponsor American Family Mutual Insurance and service companies PCS and AIR Worldwide are being sued by liquidators of the insurer's Mariah Re bond in a $100mn dispute that calls into question their handling of the industry loss-linked deal.

Zurich-based insurance-linked securities (ILS) fund manager Twelve Capital has appointed Markus Stricker as a partner responsible for risk management, the firm announced today (12 July).

Estimated reinsurer capital rose 2 percent in the first quarter of 2013 to a fresh high of $515bn, combining with stable demand to weigh on rates at the July renewals, Aon Benfield said in a report published today (July 11).

Bernstein Research analysts have cut their recommendation on property cat specialist RenaissanceRe, citing its vulnerability to downward pressure on property cat rates from the convergence market.

Convergence market activity in 2013 has forced pricing in the capital markets to decouple from levels set by the traditional market for the first time, according to Guy Carpenter

Start-up retrocession carrier Phoenix CRetro is aiming to offer up to $100mn of limit by 1 January 2015 by pooling capital from providers in Central and Eastern Europe, Central Asia and the Middle East and North Africa.

Assurant sourced a fifth of its per-event reinsurance programme from the capital markets as it expanded the cover by 20 percent at the 1 July renewals.

The average cat bond premium fell by 3.6 percent in the second quarter, according to analysis firm Lane Financial

Bermudian short-tail specialist has launched its first public cat bond after purchasing $150mn of cover from the Mona Lisa Re securitisation

If a defining feature of 2013 is the inroads that capital markets have made into catastrophe reinsurance markets, then AIG's Tradewynd Re may one day be considered a pivotal transaction that shifted the boundaries of securitised risk even further because of the wide array of business classes that are covered under the transaction