Best of Artemis, week ending 19th October 2014

Here are the ten most popular news articles, week ending 19th October 2014, on catastrophe bonds, reinsurance capital and related risk transfer topics, from the last seven days on Artemis. 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 19th October 2014:

1. Multi-year reinsurance deals may indicate weaker discipline: S&P
   The current trend towards growth of multi-year reinsurance deals, as heightened competition pushes reinsurers to offer coverage enhancements to clients, could indicate a weakening of reinsurance underwriting standards, warns Standard & Poor’s.

2. Capacity alone not a sustainable reinsurance business model: Swiss Re CEO
   Michel Liès, Group CEO of global reinsurance firm Swiss Re, said at an event yesterday that while the current re/insurance market environment provides challenges and opportunities, those reinsurers offering capacity alone could be in trouble.

3. Will pension funds, alternative capital & ILS kill the reinsurance cycle?
   One of the topics that has been heavily debated over the last few years is exactly what the increasing amount of pension fund investments in ILS and alternative reinsurance capital means for the traditional reinsurance market cycle.

4. Horseshoe Group opens as insurance & ILS manager in Gibraltar
   Specialist Bermuda-headquartered insurance-linked securities management, servicing, transformation and fronting firm Horseshoe Group has had its license to operate in Gibraltar approved, meaning Gibraltar is now open for ILS business.

5. How to respond to ‘biblical flood’ of reinsurance capital: Andrew Kendrick, ACE
   Andrew Kendrick, the President of ACE European Group, discussed what the influx of new and alternative reinsurance capital means for the London insurance and reinsurance market in an Insurance Institute of London lecture held at Lloyd’s on Tuesday (14th October).

6. Ariel Re led ‘Lutine alternative’ to collateralized markets expands
   The Ariel Re led property catastrophe reinsurance consortium at Lloyd’s, which is billed as an alternative to collateralized reinsurance markets, is set to expand its capacity to lines of up to $100m, while also expanding to include international business.

7. Innovate or perish. A message for insurers and reinsurers from Aon
   Insurance and reinsurance broking power house Aon told insurers that they have two stark choices as the re/insurance industry moves into the next stage of its development. Innovate or perish, a message that definitely applies to reinsurance as well.

8. Alternative capital an opportunity for growth into new risks: Lloyd’s CEO Beale
   The CEO of the Lloyd’s of London insurance and reinsurance market, Inga Beale, said recently that the alternative capital which has entered the market should be used as an opportunity to grow into uninsured and underinsured risks.

9. Insurers need rate increases to achieve adequate returns: Alliance Bernstein
   Analysis from Alliance Bernstein researchers shows that the property and casualty insurance sector needs to continue to take rate increases of between 5% and 10%, if it is to earn its cost of capital in the aggregate, which likely also applies to reinsurance.

10. Secondary market cat bond returns rise in September, but trading light
    The month of September saw lighter secondary market trading for positions in catastrophe bonds and insurance-linked securities (ILS), but stronger returns were again seen as outstanding cat bond and ILS marks continued to rise due to seasonality.

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 18 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 2014 Catastrophe Bond & ILS Market Report – A lazy summer for ILS

We’ve now published our Q3 2014 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 2014, looking at the new risk capital issued and the composition of the cat bond & ILS transactions completed during Q3 2014.

Download your copy here.