Best of Artemis, week ending 7th December 2014

Here are the ten most popular news articles, week ending 7th December 2014, covering catastrophe bonds, ILS, reinsurance capital and related risk transfer topics. 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 7th December 2014:

1. 2015 could see more active Atlantic hurricane season: Munich Re
   The 2014 Atlantic Hurricane Season officially drew to a close yesterday, ending another benign year where no major hurricane impacts were seen in the United States. 2015, however, may not be so quiet in the Atlantic according to Munich Re.

2. Sirius Capital Markets switch focus to reinsurance sidecars, shelve ILS fund
   Sirius Capital Markets LLC, the ILS and third-party reinsurance capital asset management arm of White Mountains Insurance Group, Ltd., is no longer raising third party capital for its first ILS fund and instead switching its focus to accessing third party capital through strategic partnerships such as pro rata facilities.

3. American Strategic’s losses erode retention beneath Gator Re cat bond
   One of this year’s first time catastrophe bond sponsors, Florida-headquartered primary American Strategic Insurance, has reported that slowly mounting catastrophe losses are now rising towards the attachment point of its Gator Re Ltd. cat bond.

4. Insurance and reinsurance mergers and acquisitions to increase: Fitch
   Fitch Ratings says that it expects to see an increase in merger and acquisition activity, across the insurance and reinsurance industry, as market participants come to terms with lower profitability and see M&A as a faster route to growth or an improved capital position.

5. Greg Habay to join AQR Capital Management from JLT Re
   Greg Habay, a Senior Vice President and senior broker at reinsurance brokerage JLT Re, is moving to a dedicated insurance-linked securities (ILS) player to become Vice President of Business Development for AQR Capital Management.

6. Consolidation may be a natural outcome for reinsurers: EY
   Consolidation of reinsurance firms may be a ‘natural outcome’ of the changing reinsurance market environment, as new inflows of alternative capital alongside high levels of traditional reinsurance capital boost competition, according to EY.

7. Insurance buyers look to cat bonds, collateralized alternatives: Marsh
   For years we’ve written that insurance companies increasingly look to alternative sources of reinsurance capacity, from insurance-linked securities (ILS) players and the capital markets. But now, according to Marsh, insurance buyers are looking at alternatives too.

8. Weather-index microinsurance growing up, targeting sustainability
   Weather-index based microinsurance schemes are beginning to grow up, as the schemes which were often launched as pilot projects with backing from development banks or agencies start to target a sustainable future as viable social businesses.

9. Nephila Capital vehicle buys Universal Insurance Holdings shares
   Nephila Capital, the largest investment manager focused on natural catastrophe reinsurance and weather risks, continues to demonstrate that there are more ways to access the returns of catastrophe insurance business than simply signing on reinsurance programs.

10. AIG’s Tradewynd Re 2014-1 cat bond grows by 67% to $500m
    According to market sources, Tradewynd Re Ltd. (Series 2014-1), the latest catastrophe bond issuance to be sponsored by global insurance firm American International Group (AIG), has increased in size by 67% to now offer $500m of notes to investors.

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 21 new stories 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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Artemis’ Q3 2014 Catastrophe Bond & ILS Market Report – A lazy summer for ILS

We’ve now published our Q3 2014 catastrophe bond & ILS market report.

This report reviews the catastrophe bond and insurance-linked securities (ILS) market at the end of the third-quarter of 2014, looking at the new risk capital issued and the composition of the cat bond & ILS transactions completed during Q3 2014.

Download your copy here.