Best of Artemis, week ending 4th January 2015

Here are the ten most popular news articles, week ending 4th January 2015, 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.

Check out the most popular stories and themes of 2014, according to our global readership.

Top ten most viewed articles on Artemis.bm, week ending 4th January 2015:

1. Reinsurance rates decline at Jan 1, change the only sustainable course
   Reinsurance broker Willis Re said that change is the only sustainable course of action for many reinsurers, as competition at renewals pushes rates on catastrophe business down by 10%, but some evidence of a price floor is emerging the broker said.

2. Q4 2014 Cat Bond & ILS Market Report – A busy finish to a record year for ILS
   We published our latest quarterly report on the catastrophe bond and insurance-linked securities (ILS) market. The report titled ‘Q4 2014 Cat Bond & ILS Market Report – A busy finish to a record year for ILS‘ also includes a brief review of the record year of issuance.

3. Proposal seeks to open up catastrophe bond investing for life insurers
   The U.S. National Association of Insurance Commissioners has received a proposal to change the capital treatment of catastrophe bonds for life insurers investing in them, which it believes could open the floodgates for a wave of new capital to enter the ILS sector.

4. $75m Eden Re I reinsurance sidecar launches, likely Munich Re
   It looks like the world’s largest reinsurance firm Munich Re has added another fully-collateralized reinsurance sidecar vehicle to its roster, as $75m of participating notes from a special purpose insurer named Eden Re I Ltd. have just listed in Bermuda.

5. Gator Re cat bond trades, but threat may grow with new thunderstorms
   Florida primary insurer American Strategic Insurance’s Gator Re Ltd. catastrophe bond saw some trading activity earlier this month despite the threat of losses, but a recent thunderstorm and tornado system may produce additional qualifying losses.

6. Stone Ridge continues growth as ILS assets rise to $2.124 billion
   As of the 31st October 2014 the total net assets of New York based Stone Ridge Asset Management’s three insurance and reinsurance-linked investment funds had reached $2.124 billion, up by approximately 5% since the end of July.

7. S&P affirms MultiCat Mexico cat bond as Odile not a triggering event
   Rating agency Standard & Poor’s has now affirmed its rating on the MultiCat Mexico Ltd. (Series 2012-1) Class C catastrophe bond notes and removed them from CreditWatch as hurricane Odile was not a triggering event.

8. Hannover Re in CHF 70m Leine Re private ILS transaction
   German reinsurance company Hannover Re has again used its Bermuda-domiciled segregated accounts vehicle Kaith Re Ltd. to issue a CHF 70m ($71m) private insurance-linked security or catastrophe bond transaction using a segregated account named Leine Re.

9. RGA in $200 billion mortality risk retrocession to Pacific Life
   Life reinsurer Reinsurance Group of America Inc. has offloaded a massive $200 billion block of mortality risk associated with in-force individual life reinsurance business to the retrocession operations of Pacific Life Insurance Company.

10. Cat bond price stabilisation becoming more evident: Moody’sSigns that the catastrophe bond pricing environment has become more stable are becoming increasingly apparent as the end of 2014 approaches and the pace of price declines continues to slow, according to a report by ratings agency Moody’s.

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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Artemis’ Q4 2014 Catastrophe Bond & ILS Market Report – A busy finish to a record year for ILS

We’ve now published our Q4 2014 catastrophe bond & ILS market report.

This report reviews the catastrophe bond and insurance-linked securities (ILS) market at the end of the fourth-quarter of 2014, looking at the new risk capital issued and the composition of the cat bond & ILS transactions completed during Q4 2014. It also includes a brief review of the full-year 2014’s record issuance.

Download your copy here.