cat bonds News

S&P Lowers Ratings on Residential Re’s Notes to ‘B+’

Standard & Poor’s Ratings Services has lowered its rating on the Class 2009-1 notes issued by Residential Reinsurance 2009 Ltd. to ‘B+(sf)’ from ‘BB-(sf)’. S&P explained that the rating action “is related to the changes in AIR Worldwide Corp.’s model …

Cat Bond Investors Not Scared Off by Japan Quake

The catastrophe bond market seems to have survived the Japanese earthquake, its biggest test since the Lehman Brothers bankruptcy, with investors still likely to consider the sector despite millions of dollars of losses. The cat bond sector – in which …

Aon Benfield Analyzes Q1 Cat Bond Performance

Aon Benfield Securities, the investment banking subsidiary of Aon Corp., has released its latest Insurance Linked Securities (ILS) report, which examines the key trends in the ILS sector during the first quarter of the year. The report notes that “several …

Allianz Confirms Cat Bond Commitment with $40 Million U.S. Placement

Germany’s Allianz has reconfirmed its commitment to catastrophe bonds, as a useful and generally accepted method of transferring a certain amount of risk to the capital markets. It underlined that commitment with the announcement of the closure of a new …

CORRECTION: S&P RMS Cat Bond CreditWatch

Standard & Poor’s has issued a corrective statement concerning one of the cat bond ratings listed in the bulletin it issued on April 18. The Series 2011-1 Class A notes, rated BB+ (sf)/Watch Neg BB+ (sf) issued by Foundation Re …

S&P Puts 17 Cat Bonds on CreditWatch/Negative Due to RMS Model Change

Standard & Poor’s Ratings Services has placed its ratings on 17 natural peril catastrophe bonds (listed below) on CreditWatch with negative implications. S&P explained that it took the action following “Risk Management Solutions Inc.’s (RMS) release of its RiskLink V11 …

Record $1 Billion Catastrophe Bonds Issued in Q1

Attractive market conditions as a result of strong investor demand resulted in a record issuance of $1 billion catastrophe bonds in the first quarter of 2011, compared to $650 million in the same quarter last year. This is according to …

Cat Bond Investors Braced for Japan Disaster Hit

The Japanese earthquake is set to be the first natural disaster that triggers a number of catastrophe bonds, surpassing Hurricane Katrina to become the event with the biggest impact on the alternative reinsurance sector. But cat bond investors are still …

S&P Puts Montana Re Cat Bonds on CreditWatch Negative after Japan Quake

Standard & Poor’s Ratings Services has placed its ‘B- (sf)’ rating on Montana Re Ltd.’s Class E notes on CreditWatch with negative implications. The notes, totaling $210 million, were originally placed at the end of December 2010 by Flagstone Re. …

Best Places Topiary Capital Debt Rating under Review/Developing

A.M. Best Co. has placed under review with developing implications the debt rating of “bb+” on $200 million Series 2008-1 Class A principal at-risk variable rate notes due August 5, 2011, issued by Topiary Capital Limited, which is based in …