A picture is worth a thousand words….
Timber!………….
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gRlj5vjp3Ko]
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K2yt090aEu4]
Day: February 19, 2009
Has the Cat Bond Market Seized Up? The (sub)Prime Answer is Affirmative. $2.8 Billion of Missing Merna Re Cat Bonds? Is State Farm’s Reinsurance Program Worthless?
This post begins with a bleg. Exactly how does State Farm derive $4 billion of reinsurance coverage from $1.1806 billion of actual notes outstanding? There are some very bright financial minds that are stumped by that question. So in this game of Slabbed emulates Jeopardy, let’s set up the question and bleg at the beginning when the deal included toxic paper (which I emphasize):
CHICAGO–(BUSINESS WIRE)–Fitch Ratings expects to assign the following ratings to the proposed notes of Merna Reinsurance Ltd. (Merna Re) listed below:
–$500,000,000 tranche A ‘AAA’;
–$1,200,000,000 tranche B ‘AA+’;
–$850,000,000 tranche C ‘A-‘;
–$690,000,000 tranche D ‘BB’;
–$780,000,000 tranche E ‘B+’.The expected ratings address the likelihood that note holders will receive full payments of interest and principal in accordance with the terms of the transaction documents. These expected ratings are contingent on final documents conforming to information already received.
The expected ratings on all notes are based on stressed modeled loss statistics provided by an independent, third party modeling firm; the transaction’s legal and cash flow structure; the financial strength of the sponsor, State Farm Mutual Automobile Insurance Company (State Farm); and the credit enhancement provided by the subordinated notes. Continue reading “Has the Cat Bond Market Seized Up? The (sub)Prime Answer is Affirmative. $2.8 Billion of Missing Merna Re Cat Bonds? Is State Farm’s Reinsurance Program Worthless?”
Allan Kanner can just evermore kiss my *** ex rel
The 5th Circuit has released its long awaited Opinion on the Appeal of the Katrina Qui Tam claim filed by a group of public adjusters as the Branch Consultants – an Opinion that references this year’s award-winning snark –
and the Big Sleazy in the Big Easy Award goes to…
Here, Sop, hold the envelope a minute while I direct readers to the excellent background you posted last March and April; and, take a quick look at the 5th’s Opinion – including a significant error.
We AFFIRM the district court’s dismissal of Branch’s claims against State Farm and Allstate. We REVERSE the dismissal of Branch’s claims against all other Defendants based upon the ground of the first-to-file bar. Rather than address Defendants’ alternative grounds for affirmance, we REMAND the cause so the district court can consider those arguments in the first instance…
The Court’s error is dismissing Allstate in light of the stated intent to dismiss the only Branch Defendants that Rigsby names.
Although Allstate was one of the four insurers named when the Rigsby sisters filed suit in April 2006, they later (March 05, 2008) filed a Consent Motion to dismiss three insurers – Allstate, Nationwide, and USAA. Judge Senter issued the Order on the 10th and received the needed approval of the Department of Justice a week later. Consequently, State Farm has been the sole insurer named as a defendant in the Rigsby qui tam for almost a year.
The obvious question is how did the Court make such an error and I have no answer. However, there are other misrepresentations of fact in the Opinion; and, on several of those I have more than a guess.
The envelope, please, Sop, and Continue reading “Allan Kanner can just evermore kiss my *** ex rel”