Best of Artemis, week ending 22nd January 2017

Here are the ten most popular news articles, week ending 22nd January 2017, 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.

Ten most viewed articles on Artemis.bm, week ending 22nd January 2017:

1. Limehouse MGA to be at “forefront” of re/insurance disruption: RFIB
   RFIB Group Limited, the international and Lloyd’s specialist insurance and reinsurance broker, has launched an MGA today, named Limehouse Agencies, with the goal of positioning it at the forefront of the disruption facing re/insurance from efficient capital and technology.

2. Artemis ILS Bermuda Executive Roundtable 2016
   Welcome to the second Artemis ILS Bermuda Executive Roundtable, in which our participants explore a variety of challenges and opportunities for the sector as it continues down its impressive growth path in Bermuda, and beyond.

3. IBI ILS Partners co-founded as Tel-Aviv ILS fund manager by Muraviev
   Israel’s second largest independent investment management group, IBI Investment House, has teamed up with ILS portfolio manager Roman Muraviev to launch IBI ILS Partners Ltd., the first insurance-linked asset manager to be based in Tel-Aviv.

4. £300m longevity swap completed by Zurich with SCOR backing
   Global insurance player Zurich has completed another longevity swap transaction, helping a smaller UK pension plan to cover £300 million of its longevity related pension liabilities, with SCOR providing the reinsurance capacity to back the deal.

5. XL Catlin appoints global head of ceded reinsurance
   Insurer and reinsurer XL Catlin has appointed a new global head of ceded reinsurance placements, naming Anne Middleton to a role that will see her responsible for reinsurance program terms, structure and pricing.

6. Market environment pushes reinsurers to innovate, embrace ILS: JLT Re
   The soft reinsurance market environment, that remained favourable to buyers at the January 1st 2017 renewal season, has encouraged reinsurers to innovate structures and products from both the traditional and alternative space, says reinsurance broker JLT Re.

7. Global insured catastrophe losses rise to $54 billion in 2016: Aon
   At $54 billion global insured catastrophe losses in 2016 were the highest since 2012, driven by earthquakes, severe weather, flooding, and tropical cyclones, according to Impact Forecasting, the catastrophe risk-modelling unit of reinsurance broker Aon Benfield.

8. Fibonacci helps RenRe source risk efficiently for investors & Medici fund
   The Fibonacci Reinsurance Ltd. special purpose insurance vehicle helps reinsurer RenaissanceRe source risks efficiently for its third-party investors, as well as for its Medici cat bond fund, in a sidecar style structure that can provide bond-like investments.

9. Catastrophe bond market total return rises in 2016
   The total return of the catastrophe bond market in 2016 came in more than 2.5% higher than 2015, with brokers and market indices typically reporting a 6% to 7% cat bond total return in 2016, compared to as low as 4% in 2015 depending on which bonds they included in their data.

10. Outstanding cat bond market favours aggregate cover for first time
    Catastrophe bond issuance during 2016 was dominated by aggregate coverage, a trend that has continued into 2017, and for the first time in the market’s history more of the outstanding market features aggregate coverage than per-occurrence, according to the Artemis Deal Directory.

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’ Q4 2016 Catastrophe Bond & ILS Market Report – Market reaches new heights

We’ve now published our Q4 2016 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 2016, looking at the new risk capital issued and the composition of transactions completed during Q4 2016.

Q4 saw $2.13 billion of risk capital issued from six transactions, exceeding the ten-year average for the quarter by approximately $337 million. Strong investor and sponsor appetite throughout 2016 helped the market end the year at a new record size, of $26.82 billion.

Download your copy here.