Best of Artemis, week ending 25th January 2015

Here are the ten most popular news articles, week ending 25th January 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 25th January 2015:

1. XL Catlin deal a sign of how bad the reinsurance market really is: KBW
   The fact that two insurance and reinsurance firms of the size and scale of XL Group and Catlin Group have felt the need to come together, in order to achieve even greater scale and relevance, is a “sign of how bad the market really is”, according to analysts at KBW.

2. 1-in-100 event now $231.5 billion in global insured losses: AIR
   AIR Worldwide’s latest “2014 Global Exceedance Probability (EP) Curve” report estimates that a 1-in-100 year loss event equates to roughly $231.5 billion in global insured losses, up 6% from a year earlier.

3. Re/insurance & ILS investors to focus on value creation in 2015
   Investors in the insurance and reinsurance sector are set to focus on picking stocks, or accessing opportunities, which demonstrate value creation in 2015, as the market stands on the cusp of real softness and alternative capital continues to grow its share.

4. PaCRe under review, as investments hit hedge fund reinsurance
   Rating agency A.M. Best has placed hedge fund strategy reinsurance firm PaCRe Ltd’s rating under review with negative implications due to a shortfall in performance, compared to its business plan, caused by poor investment returns.

5. Karen Clark & Co. launches U.S. storm surge risk model
   A new, comprehensive, high-resolution storm surge model for the U.S. has been released by catastrophe risk modelling and analysis firm Karen Clark & Company (KCC), which it believes will help ILS investors to get more comfortable with this risk.

6. Reinsurance rates reaching unsustainable levels: Allianz Re CEO
   In an interview with Bloomberg, Amer Ahmed the CEO of Allianz Re said that some reinsurance rates are reaching unsustainable levels which, if prices continue to decline, may cause his firm to buy more reinsurance and sell less.

7. Soft market, new capital, structural change, the threats to reinsurers: Fitch
   The reinsurance market is moving beyond simply being soft into something “more structural”, as low pricing and competition from ILS and alternative capital continue to threaten the traditional reinsurance model, according to Fitch.

8. SCOR in $150m Atlas IX Capital 2015-1 wind & quake cat bond
   French reinsurance firm SCOR is back in the ILS market with a proposed $150m U.S. wind, U.S. and Canada earthquake catastrophe bond Atlas IX Capital Limited (Series 2015-1), as it seeks to expand its capital markets sourced retrocession coverage.

9. ISO launches new initiative targeting reinsurance and ILS
   ISO, a division of Verisk Analytics, has launched a new initiative that will see it targeting the reinsurance and ILS space as it seeks to develop data and analytics tools which make operating, capital and capacity management more efficient.

10. Catlin launches $200m Galileo Re 2015-1 higher risk/return cat bond
    Catlin Group has returned to the catastrophe bond market to seek at least $200m of reinsurance cover with the issue of Galileo Re Ltd. (Series 2015-1). Interesting the deal covers a significantly higher level of risk than the firms last cat bond.

Also, make sure you read our predictions articles, featuring leading players from the ILS, cat bond and reinsurance world.

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 29 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’ Q4 2014 Catastrophe Bond & ILS Market Report – A busy finish to a record year for ILS

We’ve now published our Q4 2014 catastrophe bond & ILS market report.

This report reviews the catastrophe bond and insurance-linked securities (ILS) market at the end of the fourth-quarter of 2014, looking at the new risk capital issued and the composition of the cat bond & ILS transactions completed during Q4 2014. It also includes a brief review of the full-year 2014’s record issuance.

Download your copy here.