Best of Artemis, week ending 26th August 2012

The 2012 Atlantic Hurricane Season is in full swing and a storm named Isaac is currently threatening the Gulf Coast. Visit this page where you can read all of our previous Monday morning catch-ups to find any stories you may have missed. Of course you can also use our keyword searchbox on the right to find anything of importance to you. Here are the ten most popular articles from the last seven days on Artemis.

Top ten most viewed articles on Artemis.bm, week ending 26th August 2012:

1. Tropical storm Isaac strengthens, forecast to become hurricane and impact Gulf Coast
   We start with our latest article on Isaac. We’ve had a number of stories on this storm, which has become the biggest threat to the re/insurance sector of the hurricane season so far. We’ll likely have another update for you later on today once we have a clearer view of Isaac’s forecast path.
2. Ontario Teachers’ Pension Plan increases stake in reinsurance sector
   The Ontario Teachers’ Pension Plan (OTPP) is a well-known investor in the insurance-linked securities and catastrophe bond space, having a dedicated manager for that portion of their investment portfolio. We look at another example of their interest in insurance and reinsurance as an investment opportunity..
3. Elementum Advisors announces new hires in legal and operations
   Elementum Advisors, an independent investment advisor focusing on the reinsurance-linked investments space including catastrophe bonds, collateralized reinsurance, industry loss warranties and catastrophe derivatives, has announced two new hires.
4. Catastrophe bonds outperforming corporate debt: Bloomberg
   Every so often the financial press zero’s in on the catastrophe bond and insurance-linked security, usually to discuss the impact of natural events and losses. Sometimes they focus on positive aspects of the cat bond market, such as the returns that the asset class generates; Bloomberg have done just.
5. 28 historical hurricanes would cause $10 billion+ in insured losses today
   An independent catastrophe risk management and modelling firm has issued a report looking at the cost in insured losses that would be incurred today from some of history’s largest and most severe hurricane events.
6. Florida Citizens made significant saving by using catastrophe bond market
   We always knew that Florida’s Citizens Property Insurance had found issuing the Everglades Re Ltd. catastrophe bond more cost effective than securing the same amount of cover in the traditional reinsurance market, but we were never able to put a figure to the actual savings. Now Citizens senior management team have discussed a figure at a media briefing held on Friday.
7. Catastrophe bond price return index jumps on benign hurricane season
   The last two weeks has seen a strong jump in the value of the outstanding catastrophe bond price return index as seasonal effects of the hurricane season have yet to seriously impact price returns.
8. CME Group applies to create derivatives exchange in London, UK
   The Chicago Mercantile Exchange (CME), the U.S. financial derivatives exchange where weather risk and hurricanes are traded, has applied to create a London-based derivatives exchange.
9. Prime Management receives accolade for services to insurance-linked securities (ILS) market
   Prime Management Limited, a Bermuda headquartered independent provider of fund administration services to onshore and offshore hedge funds with a focus on insurance-linked securities, has been recognised for its services to the ILS market.
10. Insurance-linked securities (ILS) funds have another impressive month in July
    Insurance-linked securities (ILS) funds have achieved another month of impressive returns in July with the average ILS fund up by 0.62% for the month and 2.94% year-to-date, as measured by the Eurekahedge ILS Advisers Index.

If you’ve missed any of our weekly catch-ups due to being on vacation you can find them all here.

If you want to track Isaac or any future hurricanes or tropical storms visit our 2012 Atlantic Hurricane Season page.