Best of Artemis, week ending 1st September 2013

Here are the top ten articles as viewed by our readers week ending 1st September 2013. 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 1st September 2013:

1. Should source of reinsurance capital worry corporate insurance buyers?
   In an ideal world, should it matter to a corporate buyer of insurance if its insurers reinsurance program is backed by non-traditional reinsurance capital, perhaps third-party or capital market sourced, or traditional reinsurance capital from a rated reinsurers balance sheet?
2. Alternative capital a disruptive force in reinsurance: Goldman Sachs
   In a recent report, Goldman Sachs highlights alternative capital in reinsurance as one of eight disruptive themes in business today which it believes has the potential to reshape its sector and command an increasing level of attention from investors over years to come.
3. Managing third-party capital may be “wave of the future” for reinsurers
   Capital management for reinsurance firms is getting more complex as they increasingly have to factor in a  new form of capital, managing third-party capital, which from a reinsurers’ perspective is becoming a “wave of the future”, according to insurance rating firm A.M. Best.
4. Equilibrium between capital markets and reinsurance will be reached
   While much of the news and analysis on the global reinsurance market is focused on an increasingly influential third-party capital and insurance-linked securities (ILS) market and the impact it is having on traditional reinsurance rates and pricing, Charles Philipps, Chief Executive of Amlin expects the capital market and reinsurance to find equilibrium.
5. ILS fund performance in July shows value of private transactions
   In July insurance-linked securities (ILS) fund returns were depressed by spread tightening across much of the outstanding catastrophe bond market. The result was the lowest average return of ILS funds for the month of July since the Eurekahedge ILS Advisers Index began recording ILS fund performance.
6. PCS suggest expanding reinsurance capital markets with wildfire
   Expanding the remit of the reinsurance and capital markets convergence arena seems to be high on the list of priorities for Property Claim Services (PCS) at the moment. The latest area of expansion it believes it can help to facilitate is transferring wildfire risks to capital market investors.
7. Danish pension fund ATP hit by longevity risk provisions
   Highlighting the importance of measuring, tracking and understanding longevity risks faced by pension funds, Danish pension fund manager ATP Group disclosed a loss in its pension activities mainly due to longevity risk discovered after an annual update of its members life expectancies.
8. Spread tightening lifts secondary catastrophe bond indices
   Spread tightening on catastrophe bonds exposed to U.S. wind risk has lifted the secondary cat bond market indices in recent weeks. Now deep in the middle of the Atlantic hurricane season, typical seasonality has returned to secondary cat bond prices and values have increased on hurricane exposed bonds.
9. Further details on SCOR’s Atlas IX Capital mortality cat bond
   Additional details are now available on the first mortality-linked catastrophe bond of the year. Last week we covered the launch of Atlas IX Capital Limited (Series 2013-1) an extreme mortality insurance-linked security sponsored by French reinsurer SCOR to provide it with retrocessional reinsurance protection.
10. ILS Fund Services Ltd. exceeds $1 billion of client assets administered
    ILS Fund Services Ltd., (ILS) a Bermuda licensed specialist in hedge fund administration and valuation services for insurance-linked securities (ILS) funds, has recently exceeded $1 billion of client insurance-linked assets under its administration just 18 months after its launch.

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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