ILS glossary

What is Collateral?

Assets posted by investors and held in trust to secure potential payouts. Typically invested in money market instruments or Treasury bills.

Lecture 2Lecture 3

Collateral

Assets posted by investors and held in trust to secure potential payouts. Typically invested in money market instruments or Treasury bills.

How it works in practice

When a $150 million cat bond is issued, investors' funds are placed into a collateral trust account and invested in US Treasury money market funds. If no trigger event occurs during the bond's three-year term, the collateral is returned to investors at maturity along with any final coupon. If the trigger is met, the trustee releases collateral to the cedant to cover catastrophe losses.

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