Best of Artemis, week ending 7th July 2013

We hope our U.S. readers enjoyed their holiday at the end of last week, here’s a Monday catchup for those who have missed recent coverage. As always, you can read every market news story and article here on the Artemis news blog, subscribe to our weekly email newsletter updates and for your convenience 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 7th July 2013:

1. The Aon-Berkshire sidecar at Lloyd’s: a glimpse into the future of underwriting?
   Ever since the news emerged back in March that global insurance and reinsurance broking power-house Aon had teamed up with Warren Buffett’s reinsurance giant Berkshire Hathaway to provide a sidecar type facility at Lloyd’s of London, the media has been awash with opinions on whether it is a positive or negative step for the market.
2. Rate softening, stimulated by third-party reinsurance capital, is widening: Willis
   The softening of reinsurance rates, primarily seen in U.S. property-catastrophe line reinsurance renewals to date, shows evidence of spilling over into other markets, according to the latest reinsurance renewals report from the reinsurance broking arm of global broker Willis.
3. More details emerge on AIG’s Tradewynd Re catastrophe bond
   The latest catastrophe bond transaction to be sponsored by American International Group (AIG) is a complex deal involving multiple perils, a broad trigger and providing reinsurance protection for a diverse and unusual book of business.
4. New-found flexibility helps catastrophe bond market grow
   The catastrophe bond market is continuing to grow in 2013. Strong inflows of new investor capital and an increasing interest among insurers and reinsurers to sponsor cat bonds are two factors that have helped. But this year one of the key factors that has assisted in the markets growth is a new-found flexibility in the terms of some recent cat bond deals.
5. 2013 catastrophe bond issuance on course for a record, as Q2 hits $3.35 billion
   2013 catastrophe bond market issuance looks set to reach new highs as the second-quarter brings issuance to record levels for the first six months of the year and leaves the market well on its way to achieving $7 billion plus of issuance by the end of the year.
6. Brit Group hire to assist development of capital market relationships
   Brit Group, the global specialty insurer and reinsurer with a large presence at Lloyd’s, has announced a new hire in strategy and corporate development who will be tasked with helping to develop the firms profile through building relationships with the capital markets.
7. RenaissanceRe’s Mona Lisa Re cat bond upsizes and prices down
   Bermudian reinsurer RenaissanceRe’s first broadly marketed 144A catastrophe bond, Mona Lisa Re Ltd. (Series 2013-2), has increased in size while marketing and the indicative interest spread pricing has moved to the middle of the range originally marketed.
8. Malta targets ILS with Special Purpose Reinsurance Vehicle (SPRV) legislation
   The southern European country of Malta is targeting the insurance-linked securities (ILS), catastrophe bond and reinsurance convergence sector with a legislative effort to put in place a legal framework allowing for the formation and domicile of Special Purpose Reinsurance Vehicles (SPRV) in Malta.
9. West Virginia Investment Management Board allocates to ILS with Elementum
   The West Virginia Investment Management Board, an organisation established in 1997 to manage the finances of pension and defined benefit plans for the State’s public workers such as teachers, has discovered investments in insurance-linked securities and reinsurance with an allocation made to ILS specialists Elementum Advisors.
10. Investors like diversifying effect of Australian cyclone in Queen Street VIII cat bond: Munich Re
    The world’s largest reinsurance company Munich Re has issued a statement regarding the successful completion of its latest catastrophe bond transaction, Queen Street VIII Re Limited.

This is by no means every article published on Artemis during the last week, just the most popular among our readers. To ensure you always stay up to date with Artemis subscribe to our weekly email newsletter update.

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