Best of Artemis, week ending 10th January 2016

Here are the ten most popular news articles, week ending 10th January 2016, 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 10th January 2016:

1. Willis Towers Watson: a risk & capital connector in re/insurance?
   The merger between insurance and reinsurance broker Willis Group and global professional services firm Towers Watson has officially completed today, with the newly joined 39,000 person company now having an interesting, perhaps compelling opportunity in re/insurance and ILS.

2. $7.898bn of cat bond issuance in 2015 takes market near $26bn
   The outstanding catastrophe bond and insurance-linked securities (ILS) market has almost reached $26 billion for the first time on record, as the $7.898 billion of new issues in 2015 helped the market to grow once again.

3. UK storm & flood loss could near £2.5bn ($3.7bn), hours clause a factor
   Insurance and reinsurance industry losses from UK winter storms and the resulting flooding that has been experienced in recent weeks could reach as much as £2.5 billion ($3.7bn), according to analysts at UBS, but the burden for the reinsurance market is uncertain with the hours clause a factor.

4. Alternative reinsurance capital growth outstrips traditional: Aon Benfield
   The growth of alternative reinsurance capital has outstripped global traditional reinsurance capital in 2015, reaching $69 billion at the end of the third-quarter, now doubling the property catastrophe reinsurance capacity of the market, according to Aon Benfield.

5. Rates adequate, returns near cost-of-capital in Lloyd’s renewals: Peel Hunt
   Insurance and reinsurance rates in the Lloyd’s of London market declined in line with comments from brokers at the January 1st 2016 renewals and while they remain technically adequate, the returns on underwriting are nearing cost-of-capital, according to analysts at Peel Hunt.

6. Reinsurance rate declines slow, ILS discipline may attract capital: Guy Carpenter
   There is evidence that the rate of descent in reinsurance pricing is slowing, helped by signs of discipline, particularly in insurance-linked securities (ILS) markets, which could have the effect of attracting more capital, according to broker Guy Carpenter.

7. $57m cat bond from Willis’ Resilience Re platform lists on BSX
   A new private catastrophe bond transaction has been completed, Resilience Re Ltd. (Series 15121A), the first transaction we’ve heard of to use the Resilience Re cat bond issuance platform that was launched in October 2014 by broker Willis.

8. As reinsurance prices near cost-of-capital Fitch warns on rating actions
   Further “material” price declines, or evidence of “disorderly” market competition in reinsurance, could result in the need for negative rating actions as prices are already close to some reinsurers’ cost of capital, Fitch Ratings has warned.

9. XL (Catlin) sponsoring $300m Galileo Re 2016-1 multi-peril cat bond
   The first catastrophe bond to be launched to the ILS investor market in 2016 is a $300 million or greater Galileo Re Ltd. (Series 2016-1) international multi-peril issuance which is being sponsored by XL Insurance (Bermuda) Ltd.

10. Reinsurance sector no longer earning its cost of equity: Bernstein
    The reinsurance sector in 2016 has now seen pricing fall so far that it is no longer earning its cost of equity, according to analysts from Bernstein. But at the same time, the analysts believe further softening is ahead, as “Earnings are not yet painful enough.”

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 27 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’ Q4 2015 Catastrophe Bond & ILS Market Report – Outright market growth continues

We’ve now published our Q4 2015 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 2015, looking at the $1.525 billion of new risk capital issued and the composition of the cat bond & ILS transactions completed during Q4 2015. The report also includes a review of the full year 2015 issuance and commentary from co-editor GC Securities.

Download your copy here.