NYMEX, Gallagher link to offer cat futures

NEW YORK—The New York Mercantile Exchange and reinsurance intermediary Gallagher Re in London have reached an agreement under which NYMEX will list standardized property damage risk futures and options contracts for trading.

The contracts will allow for real time electronic trading of property damage risk exposures, including hurricane risk, through a futures exchange, according to NYMEX and Gallagher Re. The contracts will be settled against an index that will be created by Gallagher Re.

Property Claims Services, which is part of the Jersey City, N.J.-based Insurance Services Office Inc., will supply the data that will be used to create the index upon which the contracts are based.

Trading on the contracts, which is subject to the Commodity Futures Trading Commission's approval, is expected to begin in January, said a spokeswoman for Gallagher Re, which is a division of Itasca, Ill.-based Arthur J. Gallagher & Co.