Financial Law and Regulation Seminars
Introduction to “Alternative Risk Transfer” (ART) and “Insurance Linked Securities” (ILS)
29 April 2026 (Wednesday), 12:30 – 1:30 PM Hong Kong Time
ZOOM & In-Person: Room 723, 7/F Cheng Yu Tung Tower, The University of Hong Kong
Please register at https://hkuems1.hku.hk/hkuems/ec_regform.aspx?guest=Y&ueid=106326
ART comprises financial solutions that enable businesses to manage risks of economic loss, improve balance sheet resilience, and unlock new revenue streams, arising from extreme weather events or natural catastrophes (typhoon, flood, earthquake, drought, pandemic, etc.) or from man-made catastrophes (pandemic, cold war, blockade, supply chain disruption, etc.).
ILS are a subset of ART that provide substantial amounts of multi-year, fully collateralised protection against various natural or man-made risks, by the issuance of securities into the capital markets.
Both ART and ILS address common business risks more efficiently compared to traditional re/insurance solutions and are particularly good for addressing risks which are typically not addressed by conventional re/insurance or recoverable under conventional contracts or through litigation.
Speakers
Alex Korb, Principal, Alternative Risk Solutions
Alex has 28 years of broad experience in re/insurance & financial services, with a focus on alternative risk solutions: innovative ways to boost financial resilience and unlock new revenue streams via parametric, captive, forecast-based, embedded, and hybrid insurance & financial solutions, including insurance-linked securities (ILS). Alex is a graduate of Binghamton University, has an MBA from the NYU Stern School of Business, and has earned multiple professional designations in insurance, risk management and finance.
Jeff Chen, Partner, Dentons Hong Kong LLP
Jeff has over 25 years’ experience in Asia as a legal practitioner in all areas of fixed income, including securitization, structured notes, derivatives, private structured debt, and distressed debt, and is now expanding his practice to cover ART and ILS. Jeff received his JD from The George Washington University Law School and his MA and BA degrees from The University of Michigan. He is admitted to practice in New York and the District of Columbia and is a licensed solicitor in Hong Kong. He serves on the Professional Advisory Board of the Asian Institute of International Financial Law, Faculty of Law, The University of Hong Kong.
Timothy Yip, Executive Director, Head of ILS, ILS Advisers
Timothy Yip is Executive Director and Head of ILS Investments at HSZ Group, where he oversees the firm’s ILS and catastrophe bond team. He has more than two decades of experience across ILS and reinsurance, spanning analytics, program placement, product design, actuarial work, catastrophe modelling, and pricing for major insurance and reinsurance participants and programs globally. Prior to joining HSZ, Tim served as an Executive Director at Willis Re’s London headquarters (since 2014) within Global Specialties, focusing on retrocession, marine and energy, and aviation. Earlier, he spent 8+ years with Aon Benfield across Sydney, Hong Kong, and London, building expertise in the catastrophe risk and capital solutions-from structured placements to risk quantification and pricing. Tim is a Fellow of both the Institute of Actuaries (UK) and the Society of Actuaries (USA), and graduated from the University of Toronto with a degree in Actuarial Science in 2005.
Moderator: Professor Giuliano Castellano, Director of AIIFL and Associate Professor, Faculty of Law, The University of Hong Kong
More information about the Asian Institute of International Financial Law (AIIFL), please visit https://aiifl.law.hku.hk/.