Best of Artemis, week ending 6th July 2014

Here are the ten most popular news articles, week ending 6th July 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.

Q2 2014 Catastrophe Bond & ILS Market Report – The Biggest Quarter, The Biggest Catastrophe Bond

We’ve now published our Q2 2014 catastrophe bond & ILS market report.

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

Top ten most viewed articles on Artemis.bm, week ending 6th July 2014:

1. Reinsurance market sees lowest risk margins in a generation: Aon Benfield
   The global reinsurance market is seeing the lowest risk margins in a generation, as traditional and alternative reinsurance capacity providers discover just how low their cost-of-capital will go, according to Aon Benfield’s latest renewal report.

2. BT pension scheme in record £16 billion longevity swap transaction
   The largest longevity swap transaction ever seen has been announced this morning, with the UK’s BT Plc (telecommunications company) offloading a huge £16 billion of its longevity exposures through a longevity swap transaction.

3. Alternative capital cannot replace traditional reinsurance model: Swiss Re’s Liès
   Swiss Re, one of the largest reinsurance groups in the world, believes that alternative capital is not a replacement for the traditional reinsurance model according to its CEO Michel M. Liès in a statement released this morning.

4. Significant reinsurance rate reductions seen at renewals: Willis Re
   According to the latest report from reinsurance broker Willis Re the June 1 and July 1 mid-year renewals have seen significant reinsurance rate reductions as excess capital continues to chase muted demand, with the competitive market dynamic continuing.

5. Reported insured losses from storm Ela’s wind and hail pass $2 billion
   Wind and hail storm Ela, which struck Europe on June 9th and 10th affecting large areas of France, Germany and neighbouring countries, now looks to have caused at least $2 billion of insurance industry losses.

6. Strong reinsurance underwriters will get share of alternative capital: Benchimol
   There is no need for traditional reinsurance players to be to nervous when they witness alternative capital continuing to flow into the market, as the strong reinsurance underwriters will get their share of new capital, according to AXIS Capital CEO Albert Benchimol.

7. World Bank hails first cat bond from new Capital-at-Risk Notes Program
   The World Bank has hailed the successful issuance of the first catastrophe bond notes through its newly created Capital-at-Risk Notes Program, which resulted in the World Bank – CCRIF 2014-1 cat bond we covered last week.

8. Q2 & H1 2014 catastrophe bond & ILS issuance beats all records
   The second-quarter of 2014 will go down in catastrophe bond and insurance-linked security (ILS) market history as the busiest quarter ever, with a stunning $4.634 billion of new cat bond and ILS risk capital recorded in the Artemis Deal Directory.

9. Japan earthquake premiums to rise, even as reinsurance rates decline
   Japanese primary insurers are set to raise premiums for earthquake insurance by an average 15.5%, according to reports, despite availability of reinsurance being at an all time high and pricing generally softening.

10. Sovereign wealth funds look to alternatives, ILS expected to feature
    The risk appetite of sovereign wealth fund investors is rising, according to a recent survey, with the expected result being a continued increase in allocations to alternative asset classes including insurance and reinsurance linked investments.

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 24 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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