WRMA adds to Asian presence

The Weather Risk Management Association (WRMA), the Washington DC-based trade association for the weather derivatives market, has added Hiroshi Matsui of Mizuho corporate bank to its board of directors, and named Hironori Kamezawa of The Bank of Tokyo-Mitsubishi as the new co-chair of its Asia-Pacific committee.

Matsui, who preceeded Kamezawa as the Asia-Pacific committee’s co-chair, is head of Mizuho corporate bank’s derivatives business development team.

Kamezawa is head of the Bank of Tokyo-Mitsubishi’s derivatives and structured products division, where he is responsible for business development and trading of exotic interest rate derivatives and weather derivatives.

“The Asia-Pacific region is growing rapidly, due partly to the diversity of the deals being transacted in Japan and, more and more, in Australia,” said Valerie Cooper, executive director of WRMA. “The growth in the region that was reflected in our 2002 survey of the market is continuing, and we plan to capitalise on Matsui and Kamezawa’s expertise to continue spreading the word.”

According to WRMA’s 2002 survey of the weather risk market, the number of contracts transacted in Asia grew by 304% in the last year, and their total notional value increased by 100%. The number of contracts in Australia more than doubled, with their total value growing more than twelve times.