An Italian cat bond “would be snapped up”, says Tenax Capital’s Figna

Speaking to a local Italian daily newspaper, Massimo Figna, founder and CEO of hedge fund manager Tenax Capital, explained that with insurance penetration extremely low, Italy would benefit from the use of catastrophe bonds, which he believes investors would “snap up.” Tenax Capital is a London-based investment manager that Figna founded and it offers a […]

ILS investors willing to take on more risk, if the price is right: Peel Hunt

Insurance-linked securities (ILS) investors appear ready and willing to take on more peak peril severity catastrophe risk, if the price is right, leading analysts at Peel Hunt to suggest the ILS market is primed for growth. Investors are looking for evidence that reinsurance is now rate-adequate, and that is what now needs to be proven […]

Alternative capital raises accelerate to ~$11bn YTD, says Berenberg

Having only a few weeks ago estimated that as much as $8 billion of alternative reinsurance and insurance-linked securities (ILS) capital had been raised year-to-date, analysts from investment bank Berenberg have now upped that amount to ~$11 billion. As a result, the analysts now believe that alternative and ILS capital flows into the insurance and […]

World Bank to build on catastrophe insurance solutions such as cat bonds

The World Bank Group said today that it intends to build on its already available catastrophe insurance solutions, such as catastrophe bonds, to make access to disaster risk financing without adding debt a reality for member countries. In announcing a new and comprehensive toolkit focused on supporting countries after natural disasters, the World Bank highlights […]

Tight cat bond capacity drove simultaneous issuance of Chile cat swaps: World Bank

The fact capacity and capital was tight in the catastrophe bond market at the time of the issuance of the $350 million of IBRD – Chile 2023 cat bond notes drove the World Bank team to look to traditional re/insurers and the issuance of simultaneous catastrophe swaps, resulting in much stronger execution for Chile. Back in […]

Climate Resilient Development Bond (CRD Bond) proposed with ILS design

A new financial structure that can provide community-based climate insurance or risk transfer protection from the capital markets, while incorporating resilience, advanced funding for loss-prevention and mitigation, through an insurance-linked security (ILS) designed structure has been proposed. Reinsurance broker Guy Carpenter has collaborated with Dr Franziska Arnold-Dwyer from Queen Mary University of London to produce […]

Tighter cat bond pricing welcomed by sponsors: Aon Securities

Catastrophe bond and insurance-linked securities (ILS) market conditions improved somewhat for sponsors during the first-quarter of 2023, with tightening of pricing welcomed by re/insurers, Aon Securities has said. In reporting on the Q1 2023 cat bond market activity, Aon Securities, the ILS and capital markets broker-dealer unit of the insurance and reinsurance broker, explained that […]

Swiss Re cat bond index already having best year since 2013

Reflecting the elevated spreads of catastrophe bonds, after just a few months of this year the return of the Swiss Re catastrophe bond index, perhaps the most widely used benchmark in the insurance-linked securities (ILS) space, is already at its highest level since 2013. As we’ve reported before, catastrophe bond spreads had soared through the […]

Bloomberg: Hong Kong’s catastrophe bond market can reach $2 billion by 2025

Hong Kong’s catastrophe bond market may grow to $2 billion by 2025, accounting for 4-5% of global cat bonds, according to a poll conducted at Bloomberg’s Insurance Forum. Authorities recently extended a grant program in a bid promote the city as a regional hub for insurance-linked securities, a $40 billion market dominated by Bermuda. FULL […]