Reinsurance Focus

Aon Benfield Securities has issued its third-annual review of the insurance-linked securities (ILS) market. The review describes the growth that has occurred in the ILS market for the year ending June 30, 2010, including 20 new transactions representing a volume of $4.6 billion. The review also provides a positive outlook for the upcoming year.

Also included in the Aon Benfield review are Aon Benfield’s newly-created indices for its All Bond, BB-rated Bond, U.S. Earthquake Bond, and U.S. Hurricane Bond categories of the ILS market. The indices reflect strong investment returns for 2010, including returns of nearly 13% for both the All Bond and the BB-rated Bond indices, over 15% for the U.S. Hurricane Bond index, and over 7% return for the U.S. Earthquake Bond index. Aon Benfield also provides analyses of the catastrophe bond market and the non-U.S. ILS market, as well as a panel discussion of the ILS market with five active investors.

A report was also issued by Swiss Re that focuses on the ILS market for the first half of 2010. The report provides an overview of new issuance for the first half of the year – which had a volume of $2.5 billion and was comprised of 85% exposure to U.S. Wind risk. Swiss Re’s report also provides analysis of catastrophe bond maturities, trading in the secondary market, and a breakdown of the 3.3% return of its Swiss Re Global Cat Bond Index. Swiss Re’s report also spotlights its recent placement of notes covering U.S. hurricane and earthquake risk for Allianz, and a breakdown of various ILS sector data. Similar to the market review of Aon Benfield Securities, Swiss Re provides a positive outlook for the ILS market.

This post written by Michael Wolgin.