Swiss Re
Fitch hires Matsui from Swiss Re
Fitch Ratings has hired Vincent Matsui, former co-head of global structured credit underwriting at Swiss Re in New York, as a managing director in its collateralised debt obligation (CDO) asset manager ratings group.
CRO Forum study released
Industry body the Chief Risk Officer (CRO) Forum, which consists of the chief risk officers of Europe's leading insurers, is advancing the case for the use of proprietary internal models under Solvency II with the publication of a new in-depth report.
Knocking down barriers
A new reinsurance directive passed by the European parliament in early June will eradicate the collateral requirements demanded by European supervisors. With a unified framework agreed for Europe, politicians are now turning their sights on the US. By…
Barclays Capital hires five in the Americas
London-based Barclays Capital has made five appointments to its corporate risk management and derivatives group.
RMS releases updated Climetrix weather trading system
Risk Management Solutions (RMS), a California-based provider of products and services for the management of natural hazard risk, today released version 4.0 of its Climetrix weather derivatives trading and risk management system.
BarCap expands corporate risk management advising team
Barclays Capital (BarCap), the investment banking arm of Barclays Bank, has hired three new staff to work in its corporate risk management and advisory team in New York.
World Cup finals catastrophe-linked bond launched
Fédération Internationale de Football Association (Fifa), football’s world governing body, has launched a catastrophe-linked bond to protect itself against financial losses that would result if the 2006 World Cup finals were to be cancelled.
Swiss Re and MMC to launch flood assessment tool
Reinsurer Swiss Re and Czech technology company MultiMedia Computer (MMC) have teamed up to develop a flood risk assessment tool for the Czech insurance market.
The trouble with normalisation
Weather derivatives practitioners say normalisation agreements between regulators and utilities in the US are posing a threat to their industry. Kevin Foster investigates
Insurers must change their ways to comply with Basel II
New York – The Basel Committee on Banking Supervision has granted financial institutions the option of using insurance to offset operational risk charges under the advanced measurement approach in the third consultative paper (CP3) – but not without…
Terrorism insurance - Modelling the unthinkable
In November, the US government passed a law requiring all insurers to underwrite terrorism risk, forcing them to find a way to price this exposure. Could terrorism risk models be the answer?
Tailoring internal models
Swiss Re's Pablo Koch Medina, Frank Krieter and Stephan Schreckenberg highlight the key features and main limitations of internal risk models for insurers.
Equity rally prompts tightening of financial spreads
The upswing in equity prices in the second half of the week has prompted a contraction in credit default swap spreads for European banks and insurance companies. But German names, including HVB, were still trading at wider levels for subordinate…
Swiss Re names Godbehere as chief financial officer
Ann Godbehere will assume the role of chief financial officer at reinsurer Swiss Re on April 1. Her promotion follows current incumbent John Fitzpatrick’s promotion to chief executive of Swiss Re's life and health business group, a vacancy created by…
Traders see interest in short-dated protection for insurers
Credit derivatives traders said interest in short-dated protection on European insurers was active this week. But the cost of protection in the normally more liquid five-year credit default swap markets for European financial institutions remained…
More insurers to outsource says Swiss Re
Insurance companies are increasingly turning to outsourcing of their asset management operations to manage risks and improve returns, according to Swiss Re.
Insurance companies turning to hedge funds, says Swiss Re
Insurance companies are increasingly turning to third-party asset managers to improve returns and manage risk, according to a new study by Swiss Re. As a result of the trend, insurers' alternative investment holdings in hedge funds are poised to grow by…
Weak equity markets continue to fuel widening in European credit spreads
Equity weakness continued to dominate the direction of European credit default swaps, pushing the cost of protection wider for volatile insurers and telecoms.
German insurer and bank credit spreads hit by downgrade fears
The cost of protection for German reinsurance company Munich Re and German banks Deutsche, Commerzbank and Dresdner widened today following negative rating and outlook changes by Moody's Investor Services.
Swiss Re expects cat bond deluge
Swiss Re, one of the world's top three reinsurance companies, plans to issue 50% to 100% more insurance-linked securities over the next year, in line with an expected rise in total industry issuance, said Swiss Re chief economist for North America, Kurt…
JP Morgan Chase woes prompt limited spread contagion
JP Morgan Chase’s profit warning and two rating agency downgrades yesterday, which prompted its debt protection costs to widen as much as 26 basis points to 100bp, has caused only a minimal impact on other financial credit derivatives spreads.
Swiss Re lands $75 million committed capital deal with US multi-line insurer
Swiss Re and Horace Mann Educators, an auto, homeowner and life insurance provider to US teachers with $1 billion in revenues, have struck a three-year $75 million committed-capital deal. By the terms of the deal, if Horace Mann incurs catastrophic…
Swiss Re signs up for updated RMS weather trading system
Swiss Re Financial Products (SRFP) has licensed an updated weather risk trading system developed by Risk Management Solutions (RMS), the California-based technology and data firm.
Chief risk officers
Risk is the business of insurance companies, but risk management in the sector is not nearly as developed as it is in the banking industry. Now, a new crop of chief risk officers will be trying to change all that.