Best of Artemis, week ending 16th August 2015

Here are the ten most popular news articles, week ending 16th 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 16th August 2015:

1. El Niño forecast suggests one of strongest on record in 2015: NOAA
   The latest update and forecast update on the El Niño Southern Oscillation (ENSO) from the U.S. NOAA’s Climate Prediction Center suggests that the current 2015 El Niño could be among the very strongest on record.

2. 97% of primary insurers not taking advantage of ILS: A.M. Best survey
   Responses to insurance and reinsurance rating agency A.M. Best’s latest market survey point to a huge opportunity for the insurance-linked securities (ILS) and catastrophe bond market, with only 3% of respondents noting any use of ILS capacity in recent times.

3. Berkshire Hathaway suffers from catastrophe losses
   The engine of Warren Buffett’s Berkshire Hathaway business stuttered and stalled in the second quarter, as the insurance and reinsurance components which have driven a good deal of the Sage of Omaha’s success, were hit by weather and catastrophe losses.

4. Lombard Odier hires ILS team, to manage cat bond and ILS strategies
   Lombard Odier Investment Managers (LOIM), an institutional asset management arm of Swiss private bank group Lombard Odier, has hired ex-Dynapartners ILS manager Gregor Gawron and a team to launch catastrophe bond and insurance-linked investment strategies for its clients.

5. New Paradigm’s parametric hurricane cover, with ILS credentials
   A Florida based managing general agency is making headway with a parametric insurance solution that narrows the gaps in traditional property insurance policies. The “first dollar” parametric hurricane cover offered by New Paradigm Underwriters is also partially backed by the ILS market.

6. ILS and cat bond investor discipline helps market stabilise: Swiss Re
   Investors in the insurance-linked securities (ILS) and catastrophe bond space continue to show discipline on terms and conditions (T&C), new transactional features and pricing so far in 2015, according to reinsurance giant Swiss Re.

7. China conglomerate plans to launch Asia-Pacific Reinsurance Ltd.
   Further underscoring the interest in the reinsurance business from conglomerate and investment organisations in China, Oceanwide Holdings Co., Ltd., a Chinese company, is planning to launch Asia-Pacific Reinsurance Ltd. with 2 billion yuan invested in the start-up reinsurer.

8. S&P questions Berkshire Hathaway re/insurance co’s capital adequacy
   Ratings agency Standard & Poor’s is questioning the capital adequacy of the insurance and reinsurance companies owned by Warren Buffett’s Berkshire Hathaway, due to concerns over the financing of the acquisition of Precision Castparts Corp.

9. Aegon completes third Dutch longevity hedge, covers €6bn of liabilities
   Dutch headquartered life, pensions and annuities focused insurer Aegon has completed its third longevity risk transfer transaction, hedging €6 billion of longevity reserves in the Netherlands to further reduce its exposure to longevity improvements.

10. Munich Re Capital Partners launched to take on ILS, retro & risk trading
    The world’s largest reinsurance firm Munich Re has reorganised its risk trading, insurance-linked securities (ILS), catastrophe bond and retrocession activities under a new unit named Munich Re Capital Partners, that launched on the 1st July.

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.