Best of Artemis, week ending 15th March 2015

Here are the ten most popular news articles, week ending 15th March 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 15th March 2015:

1. Property catastrophe pricing “yet to reach bottom”: Morgan Stanley
   The deterioration in property catastrophe insurance and reinsurance pricing, which has been exacerbated by excess traditional reinsurance capital and growing alternative capital, has “yet to reach a bottom,” according to analysts at Morgan Stanley.

2. Soft reinsurance market to show who takes ROE seriously: Munich Re
   With the challenging and softening reinsurance market expected to persist, the world’s largest reinsurer Munich Re warned this morning that the current market environment will show which firm’s are taking their return-on-equity targets seriously.

3. Third-party & ILS capital to more than double to $150B by 2020: Millette
   As the pace of change in the reinsurance market accelerates, there is an expectation that the amount of capital seeking direct access to insurance and reinsurance risks from third-party investors and institutions will more than double to $150 billion by 2020.

4. Collateralized reinsurance contract details matter: Clyde & Co
   As alternative or ILS capital, in the form of sidecars, industry loss warranties, catastrophe bonds and collateralized reinsurance, becomes an increasing part of the reinsurance market’s furniture, attention to contract details is a must, according to law firm Clyde & Co.

5. Nephila Capital in 10% follow-form arrangement with Amwins
   One of the interesting arrangements which was revealed at the SIFMA conference in New York last week, was the fact that the largest insurance-linked asset manager Nephila Capital has an arrangement to provide risk capital backing business through wholesale broker Amwins.

6. Credit Suisse ILS unit adds insurance M&A specialist David Grill
   The Credit Suisse Asset Management insurance-linked securities (ILS) and reinsurance linked investments team has added experienced insurance mergers and acquisitions (M&A) specialist banker David Grill to its team.

7. Allstate not ready to use alternative capital or ILS to drive growth
   U.S. primary insurance company Allstate has been actively exploring ways to use more third-party reinsurance capital within its business, but to date hasn’t found a compelling way to leverage alternative reinsurance capital or ILS as a tool to help the business grow.

8. Hannover Re expands cooperation with selected ILS fund managers
   German global reinsurance firm Hannover Re has embraced insurance-linked securities (ILS) and collateralized reinsurance in 2014, expanding its cooperation with a select group of ILS fund managers during the year.

9. Tokio Marine sponsors $205m Kizuna Re II 2015 Japan quake cat bond
   Japanese primary insurance group Tokio Marine & Nichido Fire Insurance Co. Ltd. is back with another catastrophe bond, Kizuna Re II Ltd. (Series 2015-1), seeking a $205m (JPY25 billion) source of reinsurance protection from the capital markets for Japanese earthquake risks.

10. Safepoint sponsoring first cat bond, $75m Manatee Re 2015-1
    Florida takeout (or depopulation) insurer Safepoint Insurance Company is entering the catastrophe bond market for the first time to sponsor Manatee Re Ltd. (Series 2015-1), a $75m Florida named storm cat bond.

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 26 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.

Get listed in our MarketView directory of professionals.

View the current breakdown of the market in our range of charts, allowing you to analyse the cat bond market.

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.