While innovative catastrophe bonds are being structured around risks other than U.S. hurricanes, Standard & Poor's is not comfortable rating all possible deals being dreamed up by issuers and securities firms, the rating agency said.

During S&P's “Insurance-Linked Securities Conference” in New York earlier this month, David Zuber, an S&P director, said examples of bonds the rating agency hesitates to rate include those linked to U.S. wildfires, to earthquakes in China and to terror risks throughout the world, as well as some bonds structured to respond to insurer-specific exposures.

Reacting to rumors about a Chinese earthquake bond in the offing, Mr. Zuber said S&P will want to understand more about the third-party agencies that will report the events triggering the bonds.

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