Best of Artemis, week ending 19th July 2015

Here are the ten most popular news articles, week ending 19th July 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 19th July 2015:

1. Collateralized reinsurance buyers becoming more discerning: Willis Re
   Sophisticated buyers of collateralized reinsurance protection, from insurance-linked securities (ILS) managers, funds, sidecars and other structures, are becoming increasingly discerning, as the product matures and buyers examine ILS offerings more closely, according to Willis Re.

2. El Niño forecast to be stronger, last longer into 2016
   The chances of the current El Niño conditions becoming stronger and also lasting longer into next year have increased, according to the latest update from the U.S. NOAA’s Climate Prediction Center, who now give an 80% chance it could persist into Spring 2016.

3. AXA in £2.8bn longevity swap with Reinsurance Group of America
   The AXA UK pension scheme has entered into a £2.8 billion longevity swap transaction, transferring the risk that members live longer than expected to Reinsurance Group of America (RGA Re), and covering around half the closed schemes total liabilities.

4. $18bn of alt capital embedded in reinsurance since 2014: Guy Carpenter
   Over the 18 months running up to the middle of 2015 an estimated $18 billion of new capital has entered the reinsurance market through investments in insurance-linked securities (ILS) funds, sidecars, hedge fund backed reinsurers and collateralized vehicles.

5. Reinsurance industry is in a standoff: Vincent Dowling
   The changing dynamics of the global reinsurance sector, aggravated by ample sources of capital, competition and benign losses, has created a standoff between intermediaries, insurers, reinsurers and underwriters in the space, according to Vincent Dowling.

6. M&A won’t stop the tide of reinsurance price declines: S&P
   Rating agency Standard & Poor’s gave an update on how it views global reinsurance sector trends at an event in London recently, highlighting the continued growth of capital, ongoing price pressure and saying that M&A won’t reverse these trends.

7. Third-party capital ripples through reinsurance value chain: VJ Dowling
   Significant, fundamental changes are ahead for the global reinsurance industry as the sector responds to an influx of pension fund capital that saw the price takers become the price makers, according to Dowling.

8. ART & ILS can support human rights against catastrophe risks
   International insurance and reinsurance markets, including alternative risk transfer instruments and insurance-linked securities (ILS), have a vital role to play in ensuring basic human rights for people against the world’s catastrophe risks, according to a recent study.

9. Blue Capital listed ILS fund portfolio hits 112 positions at renewal
   London and Bermuda listed reinsurance and insurance linked securities investment fund, the Blue Capital Global Reinsurance Fund, deployed its portfolio across 112 different reinsurance positions at the mid-year June renewal.

10. Don’t miss chance to restructure reinsurance using ILS: WCMA
    The majority of insurers and reinsurers are missing an opportunity to restructure their reinsurance or retrocessional protection to integrate ILS, with the opportunity to achieve a radical change in efficiency perhaps greatest right now, according to Willis Capital Markets & Advisory.

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 32 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’ Q2 2015 Catastrophe Bond & ILS Market Report – Keeping up with demand

We’ve now published our Q2 2015 catastrophe bond & ILS market report.

This report reviews the catastrophe bond and insurance-linked securities (ILS) market at the end of the second-quarter of 2015, looking at the $3.162 billion of new risk capital issued and the composition of the cat bond & ILS transactions completed during Q2 2015.

Download your copy here.