Best of Artemis, week ending 22nd July 2012

Some important news in the ILS, catastrophe bond and reinsurance space this week as the first news of an impact to two outstanding cat bonds from severe thunderstorms became clear. At this stage there is no likelihood of any losses to investors but the downgrade of the Residential Re deals should serve as a reminder for all that these instruments are designed to absorb losses from extreme events. Here are the ten most popular articles from the last seven days on Artemis.

Top ten most viewed articles on Artemis.bm, week ending 22nd July 2012:

1. California Earthquake Authority to sponsor third Embarcadero Re catastrophe bond
   The California Earthquake Authority (CEA) are to return to the catastrophe bond market for the third time in a year to sponsor another transaction through the Embarcadero Re Ltd. transformer vehicle.
2. Expanding the insurance-linked securities and catastrophe bond universe of risks
   Having begun with a focus on natural perils, with the first transactions coming to market in 1996/7, the ability to securitize risks and sell the resulting notes to investors, there by effectively transferring the risk away from the re/insurance market and into the much larger capital markets, has grown steadily and encouraged issuers to attempt to bring new classes of risk into the ILS and cat bond universe.
3. Residential Reinsurance 2011 & 2012 catastrophe bonds downgraded on severe thunderstorm losses
   The U.S. severe thunderstorm season of 2012 has begun to impact the catastrophe bond market as two catastrophe events have resulted in qualifying ultimate net losses for two of USAA’s Residential Reinsurance cat bond deals.
4. Interview: John Seo, Co-Founder and Managing Principal, Fermat Capital Management LLC
   In the latest in our series of interviews with figures from the risk transfer and insurance-linked securities markets we spoke with John Seo, co-founder and managing principal at ILS and catastrophe bond investment specialists Fermat Capital Management LLC.
5. Psigma Investment Management invest in, and recommend investing in, catastrophe bonds
   Psigma Investment Management, a wealth and investment management arm of the much larger Punter Southall Group, have invested in catastrophe bonds for the first time.
6. Strong investor interest, and abundant capital, driving ILS price returns
   ILS investment manager LGT said that it’s strong investor interest that has been creating unseasonal demand resulting in rises in catastrophe bond price returns.
7. As insurance-linked securities markets grow potential for systemic risk needs to be monitored
   The International Association of Insurance Supervisors (IAIS) have published a follow up to their November 2011 paper on the insurance and reinsurance sectors and whether they contribute to global systemic risk.
8. Munich Re leverages catastrophe bond market environment to secure higher probability event cover
   Munich Re have said that they took advantage of current market conditions to issue a cat bond which provides them with coverage for higher probability of occurrence events than their previous transactions.
9. Innovative Chinese transaction wins Weather Risk Management Deal of the Year award
   The winner of an industry award is a weather risk transaction from China which saw reinsurer Swiss Re help a hydropower company hedge some of its precipitation related risks.
10. Bermuda Stock Exchange doubles insurance-linked securities (ILS) listings in under a year
    The Bermuda Stock Exchange have hit another landmark, as their listings have now reached just under $4.7 billion. This means they’ve more than doubled the volume of listings in less than one year, very impressive growth.