Best of Artemis, week ending 10th August 2014

Here are the ten most popular news articles, week ending 10th August 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 10th August 2014:

1. Queen Street III cat bond principal repayment falls short, defaults
   Munich Re’s Queen Street III Capital Ltd. catastrophe bond which matured last week saw a shortfall in the amount of principal repaid to investors, as the cat bonds exposure to last years U.S. debt ceiling financial issue shrank the capital returned to investors.

2. Steadfast Re, capital market focused broker, launches in Australia
   A new reinsurance brokerage has been launched in Australia, with a capital markets focus on securing the best terms for its clients. Steadfast Re has launched after a management buyout led by Simon Cloney of Beach & Associates Pty Ltd. (Beach Sydney).

3. Endurance follows the strategic (opportunistic) reinsurance buying route
   Bermuda-based re/insurance firm Endurance Specialty Holdings has made an increased use of strategic reinsurance buying to protect itself, optimise the return of both its insurance and reinsurance books and to mitigate competitive market conditions.

4. Comments sought on draft re/insurance transformer rating criteria: A.M. Best
   Insurance and reinsurance focused rating agency A.M. Best is seeking comments from interested parties and market participants on a newly published draft criteria report titled “Rating Reinsurance/Insurance Transformer Vehicles.”

5. Twelve Capital completes $10m Dodeka III, third-event catastrophe bond
   Zurich-based insurance-linked securities (ILS) and reinsurance-linked investment management firm Twelve Capital has announced the completion of its fourth privately placed catastrophe bond transaction, Dodeka III a $10m U.S. multi-peril deal.

6. Better to reduce underwriting than accept mispriced risk: David Einhorn
   Greenlight Re, the Cayman Islands domiciled, hedge fund manager David Einhorn and Greenlight Capital, Inc. backed reinsurance firm, has continued its approach of non-renewing contracts which it felt were mispriced at recent renewals.

7. Swiss Re falls short, strategy shifts in softening reinsurance market
   It is the turn of the largest reinsurance companies in the world to announce their results this week, beginning with global reinsurer Swiss Re who today reported quarterly results which, while missing analysts expectations, showed a change in strategy.

8. Munich Re feels competition, but hints at capital markets opportunities
   The world’s largest reinsurance firm Munich Re announced its quarterly results this morning, stating the need for continued price discipline and consistent cycle management in the competitive market environment, but that it remains on target for the year.

9. An unquenchable thirst for premium is eroding underwriting discipline
   The unquenchable thirst for reinsurance premium. A symptom of the current reinsurance market environment of excess capital, growing capital levels from new, third-party investor sources and an urge to put all this capital to work.

10. 2014 re/insurance M&A sees trend towards global diversification: A.M. Best
    The first-half of 2014 saw global merger and acquisition (M&A) activity in the property/casualty (P/C) and reinsurance industries continue at a steady pace, according to A.M. Best, with a trend emerging towards M&A for global diversification purposes.

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 23 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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Q2 2014 Catastrophe Bond & ILS Market Report – The Biggest Quarter, The Biggest Catastrophe Bond

We’ve now published our Q2 2014 catastrophe bond & ILS market report.

This report reviews the catastrophe bond and insurance-linked securities (ILS) market at the end of the record second-quarter of 2014, looking at the new risk capital issued and the composition of the transactions completed during Q1 2014.
Download your copy here.