Best of Artemis, week ending 4th September 2016

Here are the ten most popular news articles, week ending 4th September 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 4th September 2016:

1. Reinsurance is on the edge of profitability
   Reinsurance firms are on the edge of profitability, with combined ratios rising and an expectation that even an average year of catastrophe losses could tip some companies over the edge, as market pressures continue to bite.

2. Hermine re/insurance loss estimated up to $500m by Karen Clark & Co
   Hurricane Hermine struck Florida last week, breaking the states 11 year hurricane drought. After impacting Florida the storm was slated to impact much of the U.S. east coast with wind, rain and a storm surge, however the worst case forecast did not emerge and insured losses are expected to be manageable.

3. 10% of Italy earthquake economic loss to be re/insured: A.M. Best
   Rating agency A.M. Best estimates that around 10% of the total economic losses from last week’s devastating M6.2 earthquake in Umbria, Italy will be paid for by insurance and reinsurance markets, as low levels of insurance penetration limit the industries exposure.

4. Samir Shah to lead insurtech risk securitisation start-up Ledger Investing
   Samir Shah, the ex-Head of Insurance Capital Markets at AIG, has joined Ledger Investing as Chairman and CEO. The Silicon Valley backed insurtech start-up is focused on creating a business-to-business marketplace for the securitisation of insurance risk, a vision Shah has helped to crystalise.

5. “Steep decline” in reinsurance operating results in H1 2016: Fitch
   Reinsurance company operating results suffered a “steep decline” in the first-half of 2016, according to Fitch Ratings, as return on average common equity (ROAE) plummeted by 36% compared to the same period in the prior year.

6. Cat bond investors as good at paying claims as reinsurers: S&P
   Despite being untested in the face of a major loss event and their relatively short existence, catastrophe bonds have a strong history of paying claims and the payment timeline is actually similar to that of traditional reinsurers, according to Standard & Poor’s (S&P).

7. Stone Ridge to consolidate two of its ILS mutual funds
   U.S. mutual fund and insurance-linked securities (ILS) investment manager Stone Ridge Asset Management is seeking to consolidate two of its insurance and reinsurance linked mutual funds into the same strategy.

8. Expanding the reach of cat bonds to the world’s most vulnerable: CFGD
   The Centre for Global Development (CFGD) has highlighted the growth of the catastrophe bond market as an efficient and “simple” means of insuring natural disasters, but stresses that for the most part, coverage hasn’t reached the most vulnerable and poorest parts of the world.

9. Longevity reinsurance demand could rise on lower Solvency II ratios
   Demand for longevity reinsurance and risk transfer among UK life insurers could rise, as their Solvency II ratios have fallen in the wake of lower investment yields and the fallout from the Brexit vote.

10. Brexit could result in London losing re/insurance business: Fitch
    The fallout from the UK’s vote to leave the European Union, or Brexit as it’s more commonly known, could result in lost business for the London insurance and reinsurance market, unless the UK government can negotiate continuity of passporting rights.

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 28 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.