Best of Artemis, week ending 5th March 2017

Here are the ten most popular news articles, week ending 5th March 2017, 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.

Ten most viewed articles on Artemis.bm, week ending 5th March 2017:

1. ILS, the Frankenstein’s monster in the room, or the future?
   Weston Hicks, the President of re/insurer Alleghany, has likened the world of efficient alternative reinsurance capital to Frankenstein’s monster, describing the market as untested against the “big one” and problematic because of potential incentive misalignments.

2. Profitable growth won’t be any easier for re/insurers to achieve in 2017
   There is an expectation that achieving profitable growth in insurance and reinsurance in 2017 is not going to be any easy, as ideas that pricing is near to the bottom of the cycle are unlikely to translate into better profits or more growth opportunities without an innovative approach.

3. World Bank hopes for pandemic risk transaction this year
   The World Bank is working hard on its initiative that it terms the “first-ever insurance market for pandemic risk”, the Pandemic Emergency Financing Facility (PEF) and hopes to see a transaction come to market this year.

4. Eclipse Re collateralized note platform launched by Horseshoe and Rewire
   Eclipse Re Ltd., a private syndicated collateralized reinsurance note platform, has been launched by Bermuda-headquartered ILS management, servicing, transformation and fronting specialist Horseshoe Group and boutique insurance investment banking specialists Rewire Securities LLC.

5. Markel reports $56.5m of Markel CATCo revenue in 2016
   For the first time Markel Corporation has revealed how much revenue operations at its reinsurance and retrocession linked investment manager Markel CATCo Investment Management generated, reporting $56.5 million of revenue for 2016.

6. Still early days for primary insurers establishing own sidecars
   The trend of primary insurance carriers establishing their own collateralised reinsurance sidecar type vehicles, as a way to more efficiently access, and control their access to, alternative sources of reinsurance capital is still in its infancy, according to Standard & Poor’s.

7. Man Group benefits from Nephila Capital stake in 2016
   Man Group benefited from its 18.75% stake in the world’s largest insurance-linked securities (ILS) investment manager Nephila Capital in 2016, reporting a slightly higher valuation for its investment at the end of the year and attractive commission income.

8. Lutece Holdings Ltd. ILS fund vehicle to be launched by Erik Manning
   A new insurance-linked securities (ILS) and reinsurance linked investment fund vehicle, named Lutece Holdings Ltd., is being set up and prepared for launch by experienced ILS structuring and broking specialist Erik Manning, Artemis understands.

9. U.S. hurricane tail risk could be greater than averages suggest: JLT Re
   Climate scenarios of the future suggest that Northeast U.S. hurricane tail risk could be higher than the historical averages suggest, according to reinsurance broker JLT Re.

10. ILS can add loss-absorbing capacity for cyber risks: Swiss Re
    The development of innovative insurance-linked securities (ILS) vehicles could enable the capital markets to assume some of the world’s growing cyber exposure, according to the first Sigma report from the Swiss Re Institute.

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 2016 Catastrophe Bond & ILS Market Report – Market reaches new heights

We’ve now published our Q4 2016 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 2016, looking at the new risk capital issued and the composition of transactions completed during Q4 2016.

Q4 saw $2.13 billion of risk capital issued from six transactions, exceeding the ten-year average for the quarter by approximately $337 million. Strong investor and sponsor appetite throughout 2016 helped the market end the year at a new record size, of $26.82 billion.

Download your copy here.