Best of Artemis, week ending 11th October 2015

Here are the ten most popular news articles, week ending 11th October 2015, 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 11th October 2015:

1. AXIS commits to third-party capital, restructures for efficiency
   Hybrid insurance and reinsurance company AXIS Capital has announced a wide-ranging series of initiatives to add efficiency and shareholder value, while also committing to a continued use of third-party capital to match the best risk with the right balance-sheet.

2. Casualty risks the largest threat to reinsurance industry – Willis Re
   Exposures in the casualty insurance and reinsurance sector are inherently difficult to predict and model, meaning until a market transformation occurs the casualty space is likely the biggest threat to the re/insurance industry, according to Wills Re’s Andrew Newman.

3. ‘Epic’ S. Carolina flooding to easily exceed $1bn economic loss: Aon
   Reinsurance broker Aon Benfield’s risk modelling unit Impact Forecasting believes that the “epic weekend rainfall” in South Carolina and elsewhere across the region will result in economic losses that will “easily exceed” $1 billion.

4. New reinsurance reality – Lower returns, underwriting focus: A.M. Best
   The global reinsurance market may be heading for a new reality, where lower returns are the norm and an increasing focus needs to be placed on the contribution that underwriting makes to the bottom line, according to A.M. Best.

5. Hurricane Joaquin stimulated ‘live cat’ capacity discussions
   The uncertainty surrounding hurricane Joaquin and whether it would make a U.S. east coast landfall stimulated some offers, discussions and interest in ‘live cat’ protection buying last week, according to market sources.

6. Aeolus wins $110m mandate from Arkansas Teacher pension fund
   The Arkansas Teacher Retirement System, a state pension fund established to provide retirement solutions to Arkansas education professionals, has made a $75m allocation to a reinsurance-linked ILS fund managed by Aeolus Capital Management.

7. ILS shows increasing interest in P/C specialty insurance markets: S&P
   Specialty products in the U.S. property & casualty insurance marketplace is an increasingly attractive area of the market, as it offers an “attractive strategic alternative to achieving scale in the standard commercial property/casualty (P/C) insurance industry,” according to S&P.

8. UN report highlights climate & disaster risk transfer inflection point
   The insurance, reinsurance and capital markets risk transfer sector has reached an inflection point in terms of tools, techniques and capital to address climate and disaster risks, now demonstrating the potential to scale-up and expand in scope, according to the United Nations.

9. Hiscox Re’s ILS unit Kiskadee makes appointments
   Kiskadee Investment Managers, the insurance-linked securities (ILS) and reinsurance linked investment strategies unit of Hiscox Re, has made a number of appointments as it builds out its team for the next phase of growth.

10. Tianjin explosion loss evolving, ILS fund exposures still minimal
    The insurance and reinsurance industry loss from the Tianjin chemical storage facility explosions in China continues to evolve, with estimates now suggesting $3 billion or higher. Some ILS funds remain exposed, but any actual losses are expected to be minimal.

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 25 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’ Q3 2015 Catastrophe Bond & ILS Market Report – A market making steady progress

We’ve now published our Q3 2015 catastrophe bond & ILS market report.

This report reviews the catastrophe bond and insurance-linked securities (ILS) market at the end of the third-quarter of 2015, looking at the $1.093 billion of new risk capital issued and the composition of the cat bond & ILS transactions completed during Q3 2015.

Download your copy here.