Best of Artemis, week ending 24th July 2016

Here are the ten most popular news articles, week ending 24th July 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 24th July 2016:

1. Memories are short, but paybacks can be long in reinsurance
   The topic of underwriting discipline and whether it is being displayed in the reinsurance market has come to the fore once again at 2016’s renewals, as it becomes increasingly apparent some lines of business no longer meet everybody’s cost-of-capital.

2. Asia shows significant interest in ILS, market set for steady expansion
   The insurance-linked securities (ILS) sector and the use of capital market capacity within Asian insurance and reinsurance is set to increase steadily, according to speakers and attendees at last week’s inaugural Artemis ILS Asia 2016 conference in Singapore.

3. Blackstone: Harrington Re = permanent capital, distribution & IPO exit
   For investment giant Blackstone, Harrington Re the start-up total-return focused reinsurance firm launched by itself and AXIS Capital recently provides a source of permanent leveraged capital, helps it distribute its funds and ultimately will end in an IPO exit, according to the firms President & COO.

4. Demand for insurance-linked investments here to stay: Willis Towers Watson
   Demand from large institutional investors, such as pension funds, for insurance and reinsurance linked investments (such as ILS funds and catastrophe bonds) is here to stay and will help the asset class continue to grow, according to Willis Towers Watson.

5. Swiss Re said in talks to sell £1bn Admin Re stake to third-party investors
   Global reinsurance giant Swiss Re has been reported to be in talks to sell a £1 billion stake in its closed life insurance book arm Admin Re unit, with pension funds, sovereign wealth and other third-party capital providers thought the likely candidates.

6. Markel CATCo hits $3.7bn reinsurance linked assets under management
   Reinsurance and retrocession linked investment manager Markel CATCo has raised and deployed around $500m of new capital this year, growing its assets under management from $3.2 billion to $3.7 billion by July 1st 2016 a near 16% increase in AuM so far this year.

7. ILS perils to broaden, non-standard structures to increase: Munich Re
   Despite catastrophe bond and insurance-linked securities (ILS) issuance subsiding in the second-quarter of 2016, investors in the space continue to be exposed to a broader range of perils, a trend that reinsurance giant Munich Re expects to continue in the future.

8. Munich Re profits from private, off-market reinsurance deals. ILS do too
   One of the ways that reinsurance giant Munich Re better insulates itself from the softening of reinsurance pricing, while also helping to ensure profitability, is to enter into as many privately negotiated reinsurance arrangements as possible, which is something the ILS market is learning quickly too.

9. IAIS seeks input on credit risk for collateralised reinsurance
   The International Association of Insurance Supervisors (IAIS) is asking for input on the issue of how to determine credit risk charges for collateralised reinsurance as part of the latest stage of its mission to create a Risk-based Global Insurance Capital Standard.

10. 2Q catastrophe losses likely to exceed reinsurer budgets: J.P. Morgan
    A high level of catastrophe activity in the second-quarter of 2016 is expected to result in losses that exceeds reinsurer budgets, suggesting some will have to endure the U.S. hurricane season absent the buffer of previous years, according to analysts at J.P. Morgan.

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’ Q2 2016 Catastrophe Bond & ILS Market Report – A quiet quarter fails to keep up with investor demand

We’ve now published our Q2 2016 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 2016, looking at the new risk capital issued and the composition of transactions completed during Q2 2016.

Q2 2016 issuance failed to hit $2 billion, with just $1.624 billion of new risk capital issued from 14 transactions. This is the first time since 2011 that Q2 issuance has failed to reach $2 billion.

Download your copy here.