Best of Artemis, week ending 2nd February 2014

Here are the ten most popular news articles, week ending 2nd February 2014, on catastrophe bonds, reinsurance capital and related risk transfer topics, from the last seven days on Artemis. To ensure you never miss a thing  subscribe to the weekly Artemis email newsletter updates.

Top ten most viewed articles on Artemis.bm, week ending 2nd February 2014:

1. Much of the new reinsurance capital will be permanent: Blackrock
   Much of the new, or alternative, capital, which has flowed into the reinsurance market in recent years, will prove permanent in the face of major catastrophe losses, according to the world’s largest asset management firm Blackrock.
2. £100Bn of reinsurance capacity available for longevity risk: Aon Hewitt
   Aon Hewitt, the unit of insurance and reinsurance broker Aon which has a focus on retirement products, forecasts that £100 billion of reinsurance capacity will be available to support longevity risk transfer and longevity swaps over the next two years.
3. Korean Re puts catastrophe bonds, alternative capital in its roadmap
   Korean Re, currently the 9th largest reinsurance firm in the world, has published a three-stage strategic roadmap with the ultimate goal of becoming one of the top three reinsurers. Unsurprisingly, catastrophe bonds and alternative capital will feature.
4. 2014 may be a pivotal year for catastrophe bonds and sidecars: Willis
   The coming year of 2014 may prove to be a pivotal one for the catastrophe bond and sidecar market, as the shakeout between traditional and alternative reinsurance capital continues, according to Willis Capital Markets & Advisory.
5. Aetna’s Vitality Re health insurance ILS provide limited protection: Moody’s
   Ratings agency Moody’s said in a report that it believes health insurer Aetna’s series of Vitality Re medical benefit claims linked ILS or catastrophe bond type transactions provide the insurer with limited risk protection.
6. New Florida reinsurance demand could generate $300m of premium
   The increased need for reinsurance coverage resulting from new initiatives aiming to put more of the risk in the private or ILS market will amount to around $318m of new premium income to be split between traditional reinsurers and third-party capital, say analysts.
7. More state & government backed catastrophe bonds expected: Fitch
   We should expect to see more catastrophe bonds being issued by state and government backed insurance entities in the future, as investor demand remains high and costs of sponsoring a cat bond come down, according to Fitch Ratings.
8. Pension funds still only dipping their toes into ILS and reinsurance
   Pension funds are still only dipping their toes into insurance-linked securities (ILS), reinsurance linked investments and catastrophe risks as an asset class, despite the amount of capital they contribute to the space being meaningful.
9. Mercury investible Catastrophe Risk Index returns 15.8% in 2013
   The Mercury investible Catastrophe Risk Index, or MiCRIX for short, one of the indices that we play host to here on Artemis, has seen near record performance in 2013, returning 15.8% for the full year.
10. Schroders sees strong growth in cat bond and ILS assets
    Investment management group Schroders has seen significant growth in the assets under management of its catastrophe bond and insurance-linked securities (ILS) fund strategies, as well as a broadening of its investor base in recent months.

This is by no means every article published on Artemis during the last week, just the most popular, some of which were published more than a week ago. There were 19 new articles published in the last week. To ensure you always stay up to date with Artemis and never miss a story subscribe to our weekly email newsletter which is delivered every Wednesday.

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