Flatscher sees catastrophe bonds becoming more attractive for Australian insurers, especially the three leading Australian insurers – IAG, QBE and Suncorp – as the domestic insurance market seems to have hardened as a result of the Queensland floods, Cyclone Yasi and the Christchurch earthquakes. “The Australian and New Zealand cat bond market can definitely develop to an attractive niche market for sponsors and investors,” he says. But the CEO of Suncorp, Patrick Snowball, is confident reinsurance capacity won’t be an issue for the Australian insurance market, although he echoes the pricing concerns aired by Bisch at Mercer. “The reinsurance market is a global market, and actually until quite recently Australia really hasn’t registered on the Richter scale of reinsurance demand,” Snowball says. “I don’t believe there is an issue with capacity, I’m certain there will be some more horse trading over price.” Suncorp is handling over 100,000 natural catastrophe claims – arising from floods, Cyclone Yasi and the September 2010 Christchurc h earthquake – totalling $2 billion dollars in natural catastrophe claims since September last year. It remains to be seen whether the insurer will be subject to further claims from the February earthquake, or tremor.