ILS

Energy industry mutual Oil Casualty Insurance Ltd (OCIL) said that it is not in dispute over asbestos-related claims on its 2005 excess liability cat bond Avalon Re.

Aon Benfield has effectively mothballed its new investment management firm Global Insurance Strategies LLC (GIS), as it channels its energies into Juniperus Capital Limited.

Iris Re, the new Bermudian class 3 reinsurer launched by private equity firm Cartesian Capital Group, will bring $100mn of much needed capacity to the tight industry loss warranties (ILW) market, The Insurance Insider understands.

There continues to be a lack of consensus on the structure of cat bond transactions as the ILS sector responds to the lessons learnt from Lehman Brothers.

With traditional US cat reinsurance rates rising more slowly than anticipated on increased supply and lower demand, cat futures pricing softened by up to 10 percent for US wind contracts ahead of the hurricane season, as capacity came in to the market.

US military mutual insurer USAA's thirteenth consecutive cat bond, Residential Re 2009, closed last week after further upsizing to $250mn.

Alongside traditional reinsurance capacity entering the Florida market at the 1.6 renewal, Bermudian reinsurer RenaissanceRe has relaunched its Timicuan Re sidecar...

Global broker Aon Benfield has suspended its fundraising efforts for new investment management firm Global Insurance Strategies LLC (GIS), as it concentrates on Benfield-backed cat fund manager Juniperus Capital Ltd (JCL).

Alongside traditional reinsurance capacity entering the Florida market at the 1.6 renewal, Bermudian reinsurer RenaissanceRe has relaunched its Timicuan Re sidecar with $10mn seed capacity and $60mn of third party equity investment...

Catastrophe futures pricing has softened up to 10 percent for US wind contracts in recent weeks, as traders seek to deploy capital ahead of the North Atlantic hurricane season which starts on 1 June, according to reinsurance broker Tradition Re.

US military mutual USAA's thirteenth cat bond, Residential Re 2009, became the latest insurance linked security (ILS) to increase in size this year apparently confounding market wisdom that high yield expectations from investors is deterring issuance.

Leading ILS investor Nephila Capital and a subsidiary of Allianz Risk Transfer (ART) have formed a new short-term investment vehicle that will mirror a sidecar by writing a portion of 2009 cat reinsurance exposures via Nephila’s regular funds.