"Pretty good considering we don't even know what 'pandemic' means."
Posted on 03/11/2020 4:44:08 PM PDT by Enlightened1
Investors betting big against catastrophic diseases are watching the World Health Organization closely as insurance bonds tied to whether the organization labels COVID-19 a pandemic are set to mature in June.
In 2017, the World Bank designed a new way to raise money: Pandemic Emergency Financing bonds. Over $425 million worth of such bonds, which bet against a global outbreak of infectious diseases and will default if WHO declares the coronavirus a pandemic, were sold by the World Bank in its first-ever issuance of catastrophe bonds. In the event of no pandemic, investors would be paid a healthy annualized return. Meanwhile, the World Bank could use the bonds to insure itself against the risk of a global outbreak.
“As an investor, we do not want to lose money,” said Chin Liu, a portfolio manager at Amundi Pioneer, a Boston-based firm that purchased the bonds as a way to diversify the company's $1 billion catastrophe fund. “But then, we also understand if it’s unfortunately triggered, it benefits every single person, including ourselves, to keep the virus controlled.”
For large-scale investors looking for above-average returns in a bloated market, the bonds were the next logical place to hedge against disaster. At the time of issuance, then-World Bank President Jim Yong-Kim heralded the bonds as an opportunity to leverage "capital market expertise to serve the world’s poorest people."
The bonds were administered in two tranches, with Class A bond investors receiving a return of 6.9% annually. Class B bond investors received 11.5% annually. The World Bank raised $225 million in Class A bonds and $95 million in Class B bonds.
The investors, mainly endowments and pension funds, have long bet against natural disasters such as hurricanes,
(Excerpt) Read more at washingtonexaminer.com ...
WHO declares coronavirus a pandemic; White House considers moving all of Europe to restrictive travel advisory
The World Health Organization on Wednesday declared coronavirus a pandemic, reflecting concern from WHO that countries aren’t working quickly and aggressively enough to contain the virus.
Interesting...B U T wasn’t it already declared to be a pandemic?
So what now?
The World Bank gets to keep the money (and pay a kickback to the WHO?)
Asking for a friend./s
Doesn’t sound good.
It has been declared a pandemic by WHO three times now.
Follow the money?
$425 mm is BIG BUX going to a buncha numbered Swiss accounts!
Just 425 million?
I kept hearing about these for the past week and thought it was some massive dollar figure in the billions.
I don’t mean to scoff but that’s chicken feed compared to the amount now lost in the market - let alone the US budgeting 20 times that amount - initially - for the outbreak.
But has it reached Whoopie level?
I guess the $8.3 billion can be used to cover it though
In 2017, the World Bank designed a new way to raise money: Pandemic Emergency Financing bonds.
—
That worked well.
Experts!
Ping
I'd bet that a big chunk of the defaulted/scammed money will go to a certain lab director in Wuhan... Just saying...
“In 2017, the World Bank designed a new way to raise money: Pandemic Emergency Financing bonds. Over $425 million worth of such bonds, which bet against a global outbreak of infectious diseases and will default if WHO declares the coronavirus a pandemic, were sold by the World Bank in its first-ever issuance of catastrophe bonds.”
It kind of makes one wonder if the World Bank had a certain knowledge of the future.
What the hell kind of bet is that? All these crazy derivative trades are what nearly broke us in 2008. I guess it is some kind of way to raise money, they take the $425 million and if there is no pandemic they keep the money (for what purpose? to save it for a future pandemic? Or waste it on overhead and travel? ). And if not, what? The Wolrd Bank is gambling? What am I missing?
Not too much difference in the way Lloyds of London worked when it insured ships with private investors.
The only thing is I would have taken the other side of that bet, the odds are that a pandemic can break out anytime.
Folks — this article is from February 26th. Some folks bet wrong.
And certain Democrat operatives!
Thanks for the date update. The World Bank may have invested in the Stock Market.
The $425 million in cash was invested in derivatives, worth $ quadrillion. If they default on the principal, the World Bank collapses.
"Pretty good considering we don't even know what 'pandemic' means."
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