Best of Artemis, week ending 8th February 2015

Here are the ten most popular news articles, week ending 8th February 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.

Top ten most viewed articles on Artemis.bm, week ending 8th February 2015:

1. Can M&A help reinsurance capital to be as low-cost & efficient as ILS?
   With merger and acquisition anticipation sweeping the reinsurance market, with some reinsurers that have not yet announced an M&A deal thought likely to soon, it’s worth revisiting an old topic, comparing re/insurer capital efficiency with ILS players.

2. ILS to grow strongly, reinsurers to be increasingly pressured: Credit Suisse
   With insurance-linked securities (ILS) and capital market participation in reinsurance expected to continue growing strongly the outlook for traditional reinsurers remains bleak, analysts at investment bank Credit Suisse explained in a research note.

3. Reinsurance revolution is disrupting property re/insurance specialists
   The reinsurance “revolution” has become so disruptive that it is now forcing companies that were once specialists in property insurance or reinsurance to look elsewhere for premiums, according to Baldwin & Lyons Inc. CEO Joseph DeVito.

4. IRS to issue regulations on hedge fund reinsurance strategy
   The U.S. Internal Revenue Service will aim to release regulations related to the hedge fund reinsurance strategy within 90 days, after its commissioner was quizzed on the lack of movement on an issue that has been raised repeatedly in Senate.

5. Munich Re pulls back at reinsurance renewals, sees ongoing pressure
   The world’s largest reinsurance firm Munich Re continued to pull back on property and casualty reinsurance underwriting at the key January 2015 renewals, writing almost 10% less business, and the firm sees no sign of market conditions changing this year.

6. Not everyone is pulling back on U.S. catastrophe reinsurance
   It may come as a bit of a surprise, but some reinsurance companies aren’t pulling back on underwriting U.S. catastrophe reinsurance business, as the margins available continue to be attractive to firms for which the hurdle rate is sufficient to meet cost-of-capital.

7. Low cost-of-capital enables AlphaCat to write risks Validus can’t: Noonan
   Bermuda-based insurance, reinsurance and third-party capital management specialist Validus is using the lower-cost of ILS capital managed at its AlphaCat unit to maintain underwriting of risks which are no longer priced at levels suitable for its own balance-sheet.

8. RenaissanceRe reveals Upsilon Fund for third-party capital in results
   Bermuda-based reinsurance firm RenaissanceRe launched a new third-party capital vehicle at the end of 2014, to accommodate investors looking to share in the returns of its underwriting business and investments in ILS, the RenaissanceRe Upsilon Fund Ltd.

9. Swiss Re continues Vita Capital IV mortality cat bond redemptions
   Global reinsurance firm Swiss Re is continuing its habit of redeeming mortality catastrophe bond notes the reinsurer had issued through its Vita Capital IV Ltd. vehicle, with two more tranches redeemed recently.

10. Cat bond coverage to keep expanding, as ILS innovates: GC Securities
    Capital market investors continued attraction to relatively uncorrelated property catastrophe risk resulted in further inflows of third-party capital into ILS in 2014. This stimulated further innovation which is expected to continue in 2014, helping cat bond coverage to expand.

Also, make sure you read our predictions articles, featuring leading players from the ILS, cat bond and reinsurance world.

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 33 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.