Best of Artemis, week ending 9th September 2012

Once again hurricanes have been dominating the thoughts of much of the reinsurance market, particularly as Bermuda was threatened by Leslie. Thankfully hurricane Leslie tracked further east and moved past Bermuda with minimal impact. The markets thoughts now turn to Monte Carlo for this week’s Rendez-vous meetings. To help you prepare for this industry meetup, here are the ten most popular news articles from the last seven days on Artemis.

Top ten most viewed articles on Artemis.bm, week ending 9th September 2012:

1. Investors more interested in catastrophe bonds and sidecars than new reinsurers: S&P
   Ratings agency Standard & Poor’s has published a report looking at where investors have been showing the most interest in deploying capital in the reinsurance sector after the catastrophes of 2011.
2. Pelican Re catastrophe bond is safe from hurricane Isaac: Louisiana Citizens
   One of the unknowns that we have been left to ponder after hurricane Isaac’s assault on Louisiana and the surrounding states is the fate, or otherwise, of the Pelican Re Ltd. (Series 2012-1) catastrophe bond.
3. Philippines want to emulate the Caribbean Catastrophe Risk Insurance Facility in Asia
   Countries in Asia have been discussing the possibility of creating a disaster and catastrophe insurance pool for the region for a number of years. One of the leading voices has been the Philippines, as a country particularly exposed to climate, weather and natural disasters, who have been investigating possible solutions.
4. CEA tops up 2012 reinsurance, reveals risk transfer plans for 2013, catastrophe bonds to feature
   The California Earthquake Authority (CEA) has released some details of their risk transfer and reinsurance plans for the remainder of 2012 and for 2013 after a board meeting held on the 23rd August.
5. Alternative reinsurance vehicles attracting an array of capital providers: A.M. Best
   In our latest article looking at reports on the reinsurance sector from rating agencies, we look at A.M. Best’s special report ‘Reinsurers Show Resilience Under Weight of Catastrophes, Economic Woes’. In it A.M. Best says that the financial position of global reinsurers today shows the sectors financial resilience through 2011.
6. New capital and ‘competitive convergence’ credit negative for reinsurers: Moody’s
   This report comes from Moody’s who say they are maintaining a stable outlook on the global reinsurance industry, but note that new capital coming into the convergence part of the market is credit negative for reinsurers.
7. Catastrophe bond indices show market was not concerned about Isaac
   After a week dominated by hurricane Isaac’s potential impact on the reinsurance and catastrophe bond market, it’s timely that last week we looked at the secondary cat bond market indices to see if they give away any market nerves.
8. Demand for flood catastrophe bonds could grow: Swiss Re
   A new report from Swiss Re finds that flood insurance losses are growing rapidly while the insurability of flood as a peril continues to prove difficult for the insurance and reinsurance sectors.
9. Reinsurance industry able to withstand larger loss thanks to capitalisation: Fitch
   Fitch Ratings says that the reinsurance sector’s capitalisation and claims paying ability has improved over the last year, in their latest outlook on the global reinsurance industry.
10. Insurance-linked securities market has a stellar year: Aon Benfield
    The insurance-linked securities and catastrophe bond market has experienced a stellar year of performance, according to the latest annual ILS market report from Aon Benfield Securities.

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