Kibou Ltd, a special purpose vehicle (SPV), has been established by Hannover Re to protect Zenkyoren (Japan's National Mutual Insurance Federation of Agricultural Cooperatives) against earthquake risk. The first issue, Series 2012-1 Class A, will provide Zenkyoren with $150m of protection against Japanese earthquakes between February 2012 and February 2015, reports Artemis. Japanese earthquake monitoring network K-Net will provide the measurements for a parametric index trigger on which the notes will be based. Initially the notes will provide protection for losses above an event index value of 1050 and below 1150. However, if a first event occurs above a value of 270, the cover for second or more events falls to above 490 and below 590. Tsunami-related losses are not included. The deal is the first SPV to protect just against Japanese quake since the ill-fated Muteki, organized by Munich Re and declared a total loss after the March 2011 quake in Japan. K-Net, which lost some of its network after the March tsunami, will have a back-up in the form of USGS data, should any of the K-Net stations be put out of action by an initial event that is followed by other events. AIR Worldwide provided the risk analysis for the deal.