Best of Artemis, week ending 4th May 2014

Here are the ten most popular news articles, week ending 4th May 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 4th May 2014:

1. Third-party capital adds fuel to fire for Bermuda reinsurers: S&P
   Rating agency Standard & Poor’s said that reinsurance companies in Bermuda would be experiencing fierce competition even without the influx of third-party capital, but the addition of a growing pool of capital markets money is adding fuel to the fire.
2. No easy route into reinsurance for Pine River Capital Management
   The hedge fund and institutional asset manager Pine River Capital Management is seemingly not having an easy time getting into the reinsurance industry and launching its rumoured Pine River Re, according to recent reports.
3. Generali’s Lion I Re catastrophe bond sees five firsts for the market
   The issuance of Assicurazioni Generali S.p.A.’s first catastrophe bond Lion I Re Limited actually saw five new firsts for the cat bond market. The successful completion of this transaction could help to open the cat bond market to more sponsors in future.
4. XL – GreyCastle deal brings more third-party capital to life reinsurance
   The transaction announced last week by XL Group that Bermuda based GreyCastle Holdings is acquiring its subsidiary XL Life Reinsurance (SAC) Ltd for $570m in cash, brings more third-party investors into the life reinsurance market.
5. Painful adjustment ahead for reinsurance: ACE’s Greenberg
   Evan Greenberg, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of ACE Limited the global multiline property casualty insurer and reinsurer, said that the reinsurance market faces a painful adjustment as the cycle is transformed by competition and increasing levels of capital.
6. ILS market discipline waning in Florida: Validus CEO Ed Noonan
   Ed Noonan, CEO of Bermuda domiciled insurance, reinsurance and third-party reinsurance capital management group Validus Holdings, believes that there is some evidence of discipline waning among ILS managers operating in Florida.
7. Asia lags on reinsurance, capital market solutions to disaster risk
   A new report from the Asian Development Bank (ADB) highlights that Asia is lagging behind the rest of the world when it comes to developing insurance, reinsurance and capital market solutions which enable workable disaster risk transfer markets.
8. Platinum Underwriters looks at more aggressive investment strategy
   One of the trends which Artemis has been writing about and predicting will increase for a while now, is the gradual adoption of more aggressive or active investment strategies by traditional reinsurers who are struggling to meet return targets on reinsurance rate alone.
9. RenRe feels catastrophe reinsurance price pressure, expands specialty
   Bermuda-based reinsurance and third-party capital management specialists RenaissanceRe has given a clear example in its results of the increasing move by property catastrophe focused reinsurers to grow their business using specialty lines.
10. New reinsurance capacity will be sustained, even post-event: Willis’ Hearn
    The ‘so-called new capacity’ that has come into the reinsurance market in the form of institutional backed money from the capital  and insurance-linked securities markets will be sustained, even after a major catastrophe event, according to Steve Hearn of broker Willis.

This is by no means every article published on Artemis during the last week, just the most popular, some of which were published over a week ago. There were 28 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.

If you’re looking for details on catastrophe bond and ILS transactions our Deal Directory has more than 315 listed.

Get listed in our MarketView directory of professionals.

Q1 2014 Catastrophe Bond & ILS Market Report – A Record Quarter

Don’t forget to download your copy of our Q1 2014 catastrophe bond & ILS market report.

This report reviews the catastrophe bond and insurance-linked securities (ILS) market at the end of the first-quarter of 2014, looking at the new risk capital issued and the composition of the transactions completed during Q1 2014. Download your copy here.