Zenkyoren’s new catastrophe bond the first ever to use ADB note as collateral asset
The recent $100 million Nakama Re Pte. Ltd. (Series 2025-1) catastrophe bond sponsored by Zenkyoren, the Japanese National Mutual Insurance Federation of Agricultural Cooperatives, was the first ever cat bond issuance to utilise bonds issued by the Asian Development Bank (ADB) as collateral assets. Being a fully-collateralized reinsurance arrangement to provide Zenkyoren with multi-year protection against earthquakes […]
Reinsurance returns still strong, growth a rational view: J.P. Morgan
Returns in the reinsurance market are still strong despite softening at recent renewals and this is driving some reinsurers to seek out growth while the opportunity remains, which analysts at J.P. Morgan call a rational view. Traditional reinsurance firms have been building their reserve buffers through the hard market for just such an eventuality, a […]
Hannover Re fronted more collateralised reinsurance participations for investors in 2024
Hannover Re’s insurance-linked securities (ILS) market facilitation activities continued to expand in 2024, with the number of collateralised reinsurance participations fronted for investors rising, while its catastrophe bond fronting also grew to a new record level. Hannover Re has been active in the insurance-linked securities (ILS) market for many years, as sponsor of securitized risk […]
Rochdale ILW & cat bond fund returns 11.77% with only modest catastrophe impacts
The City National Rochdale Select Strategies Fund, a mutual insurance-linked securities (ILS) strategy focused on industry loss warranties (ILWs) and catastrophe bonds, delivered a net return of 11.77% for the year ended January 31, 2025. While down from the 15.58% return recorded the previous year, 2024’s performance still marked a second consecutive year of strong, […]
Cat bond market records continue to fall as issuance accelerates in 2025
Catastrophe bond market issuance has already set a new record for the first-four months of the year in 2025, even with half the month of April still to run and billions more in issuance scheduled to settle before May, which has the potential to make this the busiest four-month stretch ever for the sector. The […]
Parametric expanding in Africa and ILS markets – GC&C’s Edwards Simon Edwards leads parametric underwriting at Generali Global Corporate & Commercial (GC&C) in the UK, including an expanding partnership with Descartes Underwriting. FULL ORIGINAL PUBLICATION HERE
AP2 ILS portfolio rises to $1.1bn, exceeds long-term return expectations in 2024
AP2, or Andra AP-fonden, a Swedish state pension fund that is one of the largest in Europe at SEK 459 billion under management, saw its insurance-linked securities (ILS) allocation rise in value to around US $1.1 billion by the end of 2024, with the ILS asset class exceeding its long-term return expectations last year. AP2 […]
IDB to support LatAm & Caribbean countries on cat bonds & cat swaps
The Inter-American Development Bank (IDB) has announced plans to support Latin American and Caribbean nations in issuing catastrophe bonds and swaps, as part of a broader initiative aimed at strengthening financial resilience against natural disasters. This comes as the IDB recently launched its Ready and Resilient Americas program, a regional effort designed to improve disaster […]
UCITS cat bond funds average 1.38% return for Q1 2025. Low-risk strategies led the way
The average return of UCITS catastrophe bond fund strategies was 1.38% for the first-quarter of 2025, according to the Plenum CAT Bond UCITS Fund Indices. But lower-risk cat bond funds led the way by averaging 1.50% for the period as a group, as they generally had less exposure to the California wildfire cat bond mark-downs. March […]
City of Zurich Pension gets 9.2% return from ILS, allocates to Tangency Capital & Integral
The City of Zurich Pension Fund has continued to expand its activities as an investor in insurance-linked securities (ILS), growing the size of its investment to now in excess of US $1.15 billion, while adding new allocations to ILS managers Integral ILS and Tangency Capital in the last year. When we last reported on the City […]