Guarded optimism hinges on new tools

New modelling tools and creative structures for catastrophe bonds may help this market finally live up to its billing.

For years, boosters of the insurance-linked securities market – particularly the catastrophe bond market – have proclaimed the market was just about to turn a corner, only to be embarrassed by soft issuance and a lack of investor demand for these products. Following September 11, insurance executives often said that the post-attack market, coupled with some long-term trends in place before the event, would create an ideal environment for cat bonds. But in the first half of 2002, issuance has