Best of Artemis, week ending 27th May 2012

We’ve now seen two tropical storms in the Atlantic basin and the Atlantic hurricane season doesn’t officially begin until the 1st June, very unusual. One storm, Beryl, made landfall on the Florida coastline giving the State an early warning of what could lie ahead. Meanwhile hurricane Bud threatened the MultiCat Mexico 2009 catastrophe bond, but weakened before landfall. Of course it’s not just storms here on Artemis and there were many other news stories for you to read. Here are the ten articles which received the most views during the last seven days on Artemis.

Top ten most viewed articles on Artemis.bm, week ending 27th May 2012:

1. Second Atlantic tropical storm, Beryl, forecast to make landfall on U.S. coastline
   The second tropical storm of the Atlantic season made landfall last night in northern Florida. Beryl strengthened slightly since our last update to this article and made landfall with winds of 70mph. A very early storm!
2. Swiss Re in £1.4 billion longevity insurance deal for AkzoNobel’s UK pension fund
   Swiss Re cement their position as one of the leading providers of longevity risk transfer solutions with another huge reinsurance transaction for a UK pension scheme.
3. Pacific Hurricane Bud unlikely to threaten Multicat Mexico 2009 catastrophe bond
   The first hurricane of the Pacific season to threaten landfall also threatens the MultiCat Mexico 2009 catastrophe bond.
4. Warm winter highlights weather hedging winners
   After the unseasonably warm winter there were losers but also winners thanks to weather risk management tools such as weather derivatives. This example highlights an energy firm who smoothed their earnings thanks to derivatives.
5. SIFMA seeks revision to covered fund definition of Volcker Rule for insurance-linked securities
   SIFMA continue to lobby U.S. authorities about the Volcker Rule as they continue to try to exempt insurance-linked securities and catastrophe bond issuers from any impact from the new rule.
6. Robus quietly making a name for Guernsey in insurance-linked securities
   We spoke with Robus who provide protected cell and incorporated cell solutions for ILS funds in Guernsey. It’s an interesting side to the ILS market which doesn’t receive very much coverage.
7. For catastrophe bond market to expand investors must be convinced risks are understood
   Investors need to feel comfortable about the level of understanding of risks which are securitized so risk models and transparent documentation are key if the cat bond market is to expand.
8. Insurance-linked securities (ILS) funds see improved performance in April
   The majority of ILS funds saw better performance during the month of April.
9. Travelers Long Point Re III Ltd. catastrophe bond grows in size to $250m
   Long Point Re III becomes the latest cat bond to upsize before close. It grew from $150m to $250m.
10. Glacier Re catastrophe bond saga continues as Nelson Re Ltd. extended again
    Once again the Nelson Re cat bond is extended while the arbitration over claims continues.