Best of Artemis, week ending 9th August 2015

Here are the ten most popular news articles, week ending 9th August 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 9th August 2015:

1. United launches Promissum Re collateralized reinsurance facility
   United Insurance Holdings Corp. (also known as UPC Insurance), a coastal and homeowners insurance focused property and casualty holding company, launched a novel collateralized reinsurance sidecar-type facility named Promissum Re earlier this year.

2. Rating agencies skeptical on PartnerRe’s standalone reinsurance future
   Reinsurance firm PartnerRe has been downgraded by A.M. Best, who cites a lack of diversification in its business without the AXIS deal. It has also been given a negative outlook by S&P, who said the reinsurer has been distracted by the prolonged back and forth of M&A activity.

3. Alternative reinsurance capital signals structural pricing change: Morgan Stanley
   The challenges borne by the traditional reinsurance, and increasingly primary markets from the expanding pool of alternative capital entering the space, signals a structural change in the reinsurance pricing cycle, according to analysts at Morgan Stanley.

4. Bellemeade Re, AIG’s ILS for mortgage insurance risks, completes
   American International Group (AIG) has completed a unique (in recent times) insurance-linked securities (ILS) transaction named Bellemeade Re Ltd., which transfers some of its mortgage insurance portfolio risks to capital market investors. AIG also commented that the transaction is part of its strategy to expand the ILS market, for its own benefits.

5. ILS market “rapidly approaching an equilibrium” – Validus CEO, Noonan
   The insurance-linked securities (ILS) market, for catastrophe bonds, collateralized reinsurance and other insurance-linked investments, is “rapidly approaching an equilibrium” in terms of pricing, supply and demand, according to Validus CEO Ed Noonan.

6. Climate change a trillion-dollar threat. Re/insurance & ILS can help
   The potential financial impact from climate change to the asset management and wider investor landscape is far higher than previously believed, according to a report, highlighting a potential opportunity for the reinsurance and insurance-linked securities (ILS) sector.

7. Hurricane forecast for 2015 Atlantic season lowered at Colorado State
   One of the leading hurricane season forecasting teams has lowered its outlook for the 2015 Atlantic tropical storm season in its latest outlook. The Colorado State University team has lowered the seasonal forecast by one hurricane.

8. PartnerRe now managing $134m through Lorenz Re SPI
   As of July 2015 Bermudian reinsurance firm PartnerRe is managing $134m of third-party investor capital through its Lorenz Re special purpose insurance (SPI) vehicle, with a strategic change in direction seeing the vehicle used for its segregated account status.

9. Capital markets & reinsurance needed on Asia flood risk: Geneva Association
   Insurance, reinsurance and capital market or ILS participants can and should be doing more to help bridge the escalating flood risk protection gap in Asia, home to some of the most flood prone areas on the planet which are exacerbated by rising asset values and coastal migration.

10. An uncertain future for Bermudian re/insurers: Fitch
    The host of market pressures in the global insurance and reinsurance market, exacerbated by market consolidation, ample capacity and impending Solvency II requirements, presents a challenging and uncertain future for Bermudian entities, according to Fitch Ratings.

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.

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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.