Best of Artemis, week ending 28th December 2014

Here are the ten most popular news articles, week ending 28th 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 28th December 2014:

1. MultiCat Mexico 2012 cat bond may not trigger, hurricane Odile data shows
   The fate of the MultiCat Mexico Ltd. (Series 2012-1) catastrophe bond, after hurricane Odile threatened to trigger its Class C notes, looks more secure as the official report data from the National Hurricane Center suggests a loss may not be guaranteed.

2. 2014 to end with record $8.718 billion ILS issuance, market at $25 billion
   This year, 2014, is set to end with the highest annual insurance-linked securities (ILS) and catastrophe bond issuance total at $8.718 billion. That put’s the outstanding cat bond and ILS market at a new milestone, a record size of $25 billion.

3. In TRIA’s absence no shortage of terrorism reinsurance capacity: S&P
   The United States Congress is not going to extend the Terrorism Risk Insurance Act (TRIA), the financial backstop for U.S. property insurers against terrorist attacks, this year but with reinsurance capacity high this may result in a shortage of terrorism reinsurance cover.

4. It’s not a soft reinsurance market yet and may not be in 2015: Moody’s
   As competition remains plentiful in the reinsurance market and capital remains abundant, reinsurance pricing pressures are widely expected to carry into 2015, but Kevin Lee of Moody’s explains that we’re still some way from a truly soft market.

5. ILS & cat bond issuers exempt from commodity pool designation: CFTC
   The U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission has issued a letter providing no-action relief to insurance-linked securities (ILS) and catastrophe bond issuers seeking exemption from being treated as a commodity pool operator.

6. Blue Capital merges insurance manager, investment manager entities
   Insurance and reinsurance linked investment manager Blue Capital Management, a subsidiary of Bermudian reinsurer Montpelier Re, has merged its insurance manager and investment manager entities into a single company.

7. $290m Eden Re II collateralized sidecar launches, likely Munich Re
   $290m of participating notes from an issuing vehicle named Eden Re II Ltd. have been listed in Bermuda today, which we assume to be a renewal and upsizing of the world’s largest reinsurance firm Munich Re’s fully-collateralized reinsurance sidecar.

8. Expect more capital markets competition on longevity risks: A.M. Best
   Traditional insurance and reinsurance firms should expect an increasing amount of competition for longevity risks and longevity reinsurance transactions from capital markets participants, according to rating agency A.M. Best in a report on pension risk transfers.

9. Aspen renews Silverton Re reinsurance sidecar with $85m for 2015
   Global insurance and reinsurance firm Aspen said that its alternative capital management and insurance-linked securities (ILS) focused unit, Aspen Capital Markets, has renewed its Silverton Re collateralized reinsurance sidecar for 2015, with $85m of capital.

10. RGA’s embedded value life securitisation is credit negative: Moody’s
    Rating agency Moody’s says that the recent embedded value life securitisation deal completed by U.S. life reinsurer, Reinsurance Group of America Inc. (RGA) is credit negative, as it effectively discounts the future profits that could have been made from the closed-book.

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 25 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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