ILS

Hurricane Sandy stirred interest in livecat trading as the storm hit New York and the north-eastern US states, reports sister title Trading Risk, although it is not known whether any actual trading occurred

PartnerRe has appointed Hervé Castella to lead its capital markets operations and added to his team with a new hire.

Investors seeking property cat risk are turning to capital markets reinsurance vehicles because the traditional benefits of investing in reinsurance equity are not working.

Scor and Swiss Re have more than doubled the target size of their latest cat bonds, taking the total issuance currently being marketed to capital markets investors to more than $500mn, The Insurance Insider can reveal.

Several of this year's start-up reinsurers are among the new names on the first part of the California Earthquake Authority (CEA)'s 2013 reinsurance programme.

The California Earthquake Authority (CEA) has lined up a $1.68bn subscription list to fill the first part of its 2013 risk transfer programme, according to an agenda document posted on the organisation's website

Allied World has settled its dispute with wholesale broker Southwest Risk over two US commercial property placements that soured, according to a statement from the broker.

Hannover Re's Eurus III cat bond marked a historical pricing low for the European wind risk insurance-linked securities (ILS) market.

In the past fortnight at least three catastrophe bonds have been brought to market that could take 2012 issuance beyond $5bn if they all close.

Reinsurers pulled back their participation in the insurance-linked securities (ILS) market in the year to 30 June, according to Aon Benfield's annual report on the sector.

Florida's state-backed insurer Citizens is planning to re-enter the cat bond market in 2013 with an additional $250mn placement, after making its debut this year with the $750mn Everglades Re transaction.

Spanish international (re)insurance group Mapfre has been stripped of its A- insurer financial strength rating by Standard and Poor's (S&P) following last week's downgrade of the Spanish government's sovereign debt.