Best of Artemis, week ending 4th February 2018

Here are the ten most popular news articles, week ending 4th February 2018, 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 4th February 2018:

1. Nephila Climate launches to expand ILS managers role in weather risks
   Nephila Capital, the largest insurance and reinsurance-linked fund manager with approximately $11 billion of ILS assets under management, is expanding its role in weather, climate and environmental, social & governance risks with the launch of a dedicated unit, Nephila Climate.

2. Pacific Alliance earthquake cat bond target rises to $1.39 billion
   The first catastrophe bonds to benefit all four member nations of the Pacific Alliance trade bloc in Latin America is set to increase in size, as the mooted $1 billion cat bond issuance has now had its target increased to as much as $1.39 billion of earthquake risk coverage for the region.

3. Hudson Structured aims to acquire assets of bankrupt Scottish Re
   Insurance-linked securities (ILS), reinsurance and transportation investment manager, Hudson Structured Capital Management Ltd., has signed an agreement that could see it acquiring a number of reinsurance company assets from the bankruptcy arrangements of Scottish Re Group.

4. ILS funds in mixed December 0.31% return, -5.57% for full-year 2017
   The average return of insurance-linked securities (ILS) and reinsurance linked investment funds was 0.31% in December 2017, as ILS fund manager performance diverged with the impacts of catastrophe loss events continuing to drive performance for many, which took full-year returns to -5.57% according to the ILS Advisers Index.

5. Securis makes organisational changes & promotions. Neil Strong departs
   London-headquartered ILS and reinsurance-linked investments manager Securis Investment Partners has made a number of organisational changes and promotions at senior levels. At the same time, Global Head of Origination Neil Strong has left the firm.

6. Rates rises likely for ILS capital backing loss-hit E&S portfolios
   Reinsurance broker Guy Carpenter has said that it expects reinsurance capacity backing catastrophe loss-affected excess & surplus (E&S) line portfolios will see rate rises of as much as 30% at the mid-year renewals, which bodes well for the ILS funds and alternative capital providers that also underwrite E&S portfolios of risk.

7. 80% of allocators to stay invested in ILS after losses, 37% to increase
   According to the results of a new survey of 100 institutional asset allocators, the vast majority would choose to remain invested in insurance-linked securities (ILS) and reinsurance investments even after major catastrophe losses, reflecting investor confidence and the growing comfort they have investing in ILS.

8. RenaissanceRe upsizes its Upsilon retro vehicle following 2017 losses
   Bermudian reinsurance firm RenaissanceRe fell to a loss for the full-year 2017 after the major catastrophe events of the third and fourth quarters, but the company took advantage of heightened investor demand for its third-party capital vehicles it seems, in particular increasing the size of its retrocessional vehicle Upsilon RFO.

9. Insurers told to cover California mudslide claims if wildfire linked
   Property and casualty insurers operating in the state of California have been told they have a duty to cover property damage claims resulting from the recent mudslides and debris flows, if the events are determined to be linked to the recent major wildfires.

10. African Risk Capacity & UN partner to expand climate risk insurance access
    The African Risk Capacity (ARC), an organisation providing parametric sovereign disaster risk insurance and resilience building support to African nations, has entered into a partnership with the United Nations Economic Commission for Africa (ECA) aiming to increase uptake and coverage of climate risk insurance in the region.

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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