April, 2009

By: Morton N. Lane, President; Roger G. Beckwith, Vice President

“Change we can believe in” was a very successful political campaign for 2008. Let’s hope it is just as successful for the ILS market in 2009. The “change” necessary for the ILS market involves the security of funds on deposit at Special Purpose Vehicles. The “belt and suspenders” protection the market thought it had, prior to the Lehman default, was found wanting. For four now infamous, ILS securities the belt (the Total Return Swap, TRS) broke with that default of Lehman but the suspenders (the collateral behind the swap) were then found to be of inquality. The old arrangement did not provide security to either cedants or investors. Pre-Lehman TRS mechanisms need “change” and the market is now preoccupied with deciding which change to believe in.

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