Best of Artemis, week ending 8th October 2017

Here are the ten most popular news articles, week ending 8th October 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 8th October 2017:

1. Parametrics dominate $874m of diverse Q3 2017 cat bond issuance: Report
   Our latest report on the catastrophe bond and insurance-linked securities (ILS) market has now been published. The report, ‘Q3 2017 Report – Parametrics dominate an average but diverse quarter’, analyses a diverse third-quarter featuring $874 million of issuance that took the outstanding market to a new record size.

2. Rate rises for 2018, as market turns but not enough to payback: Analysts
   A number of equity analyst teams have adjusted their expectations for price hardening as a result of the impacts of hurricane Maria with the potential for reinsurance price rises, at least in localised property catastrophe regions, right through 2018 now anticipated, but these are not expected to be high enough to provide the payback some may be hoping for.

3. QBE exhausts, goes $600m beyond, catastrophe aggregate reinsurance
   Australian insurer QBE Group has announced that it expects a US $600 million hit to 2017 profits due to recent catastrophe loss activity, which means the company has burnt through its entire $900 million of aggregate reinsurance protection and losses have climbed far above that protection after the combined impacts of 2017 catastrophe losses.

4. Lack of reinstatements on ILS coverage to drive some ILW demand
   The fact that insurance-linked securities (ILS) such as catastrophe bonds and collateralized reinsurance arrangements generally do not feature reinstatement provisions, means interest in industry loss warrants (ILW’s) could remain higher through the end of this year.

5. Cat bond yield expectations rise on back of mark-to-market losses
   Catastrophe bond fund managers have adjusted upwards their expectations of yields for their cat bond funds, both in terms of the anticipated yield to maturity and the future yields as they begin to communicate an expectation of a hard(er) reinsurance market going forwards.

6. Chubb’s Q3 catastrophe losses near $2bn, ABR Re to prove its worth
   Primary insurance giant and specialist reinsurance player Chubb has revealed an update to its estimate of third-quarter 2017 catastrophe losses, adding $220 million for hurricane Maria, $25 million for the Mexico earthquakes and $107 million from other losses during the quarter to the $1.6 billion it already announced for hurricanes Harvey and Irma.

7. Expectation of higher reinsurance rates is rising, especially retro
   The expectation that reinsurance & ILS rates will increase at the forthcoming January renewals is rising, as execs in the sector digest losses they face and the impact of trapped ILS collateral. The highest rate rises are anticipated in retrocession markets, as a significant chunk of retro capacity is assumed to be either paying out or locked in.

8. Markel CATCo aims to recapitalise to take advantage of pricing
   Reinsurance and retrocessional reinsurance investment manager Markel CATCo Investment Management has announced this morning its intention to raise funds, to take advantage of pricing opportunities being seen in the retrocessional reinsurance market and its requirement for new capital.

9. Cyber cat bonds will be a reality within two years: Jean-Louis Monnier, Swiss Re
   It is only a matter of time before cyber risk is transferred to the capital markets in a meaningful way, thinks Jean-Louis Monnier, global head of ILS structuring at global reinsurance firm Swiss Re.

10. PCS estimates Equifax cyber loss at $125m, designates Merck hack
    Property Claim Services (PCS) has published its first estimate of the insurance industry loss due to the recent Equifax cyber hacking breach putting it at $125 million, Artemis can reveal. PCS has also designated its second Global Cyber loss event, the malware attack that hit pharmaceutical giant Merck & Co.

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 31 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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