Best of Artemis, week ending 21st June 2015

Here are the ten most popular news articles, week ending 21st June 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 21st June 2015:

1. Collateralised & ILS plays role in FHCF’s $1bn reinsurance purchase
   Collateralised and insurance-linked securities (ILS) backed capacity providers played a key role in the Florida Hurricane Catastrophe Fund’s (FHCF) 2015 purchase of $1 billion of private reinsurance cover, which Artemis has details of here.

2. 2015 catastrophe bond & ILS issuance hits $5.224 billion
   Issuance of new catastrophe bonds and other insurance-linked securities (ILS) recorded in the Artemis Deal Directory in 2015, has now reached an impressive $5.224 billion, with $3.162 billion in the second quarter alone.

3. Investment-oriented reinsurers the “future of the business”: Arch CEO
   Dinos Iordanou, Chairman and CEO of insurance and reinsurance specialist Arch Capital, said that the investment-oriented reinsurer, or hedge fund-backed strategy, could be the “future of the business” as companies look to marry underwriting with investment expertise.

4. Parametric cat bonds a path to sustainable, lower cost capital: Samir Shah, AIG
   The use of parametric triggers in catastrophe bonds are the best path to a sustainable, lower cost of capital and towards realising the vision of the cat bond as a robust asset class, Samir Shah, Head of Capital Markets and Catastrophe Risk at AIG, told Artemis.

5. Berkshire Hathaway invests in IAG, gets quota share reinsurance deal
   Warren Buffett’s Berkshire Hathaway has signaled its appetite for Australian and Asian expansion with the signing of a 10 year partnership deal with Australian insurer IAG, involving an equity stake and a 20% quota share reinsurance arrangement.

6. Technology can make re/insurance more efficient: Duperreault
   As technology advances at a rapid pace, it’s time the insurance and reinsurance industry focused on utilising tech to create a more efficient risk transfer process, according to Hamilton Insurance Group’s Chief Executive Officer, (CEO) Brian Duperreault.

7. Expect Fidelis to work with third-party re/insurance capital: Brindle
   As Fidelis Insurance Holdings, the new hybrid underwriting and investment-oriented insurance and reinsurance firm, builds traction and when the market opportunity is right, the company can be expected to work with third-party capital, according to CEO Richard Brindle.

8. Blue Marble Microinsurance aims to expand access to insurance
   The Microinsurance Consortium and Venture Incubator (MVI) has announced the group will now operate under the name Blue Marble Microinsurance (Blue Marble), a venture launched earlier this year with a goal to increase access to insurance for the world’s most vulnerable people.

9. European reinsurers show discipline on T&C’s: Goldman Sachs
   The expansion of terms and conditions (T&C) has been a common feature of the global reinsurance sector as companies look to offset some of the pressures of a softening market, but analysts at Goldman Sachs feel European reinsurers are managing to resist the trend.

10. KBW analysts still give AXIS the edge to win PartnerRe deal
    The equity analysts who track the insurance and reinsurance sector are beginning to show a little divergence in their opinion of who will win the ongoing M&A tussle, with KBW’s analysts coming out in favour of AXIS Capital sealing its deal to amalgamate with PartnerRe.

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 28 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’ Q1 2015 Catastrophe Bond & ILS Market Report – The biggest first quarter ever

We’ve now published our Q1 2015 catastrophe bond & ILS market report.

This report reviews the catastrophe bond and insurance-linked securities (ILS) market at the end of the first-quarter of 2015, looking at the new risk capital issued and the composition of the cat bond & ILS transactions completed during Q1 2015.

Download your copy here.