Best of Artemis, week ending 11th April 2021

Here are the ten most popular news articles, week ending 11th April 2021, 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 or get our email alerts for every article we publish.

Ten most read articles on Artemis.bm, week ending 11th April 2021:

1. 2021 Atlantic hurricane season forecast for 8 hurricanes, 4 major: CSU
   Tropical storm and hurricane research meteorologists at Colorado State University have issued a forecast calling for 8 hurricanes, 4 of them major, during the 2021 Atlantic hurricane season, while also forecasting an above-average chance of major hurricane landfalls occurring.
2. Sapnar joins Stone Ridge’s NYDIG to lead bitcoin services for insurance
   Mike Sapnar, the former CEO of global reinsurance firm TransRe has now surfaced as Global Head of Insurance Solutions for the Stone Ridge owned NYDIG, tasked with leading the firms creation of bitcoin-powered products and services for the global re/insurance industry.
3. COVID-19 insured loss reports rise 21% in last quarter, near $38bn
   Losses and IBNR reserves related to the COVID-19 coronavirus pandemic reported by major insurance and reinsurance companies have risen significantly during the first-quarter of 2021, with the total pandemic loss reported now nearing $38 billion, having risen by 21% during reporting for the final-quarter results of 2020.
4. Aon – Willis Towers Watson merger assessed by Singapore competition authority
   The merger of insurance and reinsurance broking and consultancy giants Aon and Willis Towers Watson (WTW) continues to be looked at by watchdogs, with the Competition and Consumer Commission of Singapore the latest to assess the deal.
5. Florida set for some of the steepest NFIP flood insurance rate rises
   Florida is set to experience some of the steepest increases in rates and pricing of flood insurance coverage under the National Flood Insurance Program (NFIP) after the release of FEMA’s new Risk Rating 2.0 system comes into effect over the next year.
6. Catastrophe bond & related ILS market hit new high at end of Q1
   The outstanding market size of catastrophe bonds and related insurance-linked securities (ILS) continued to grow in the first-quarter of 2021, reaching new highs of $34.34 billion, based on property cat, life, health and specialty or other line of business cat bonds.
7. State Farm sponsors $350m New Madrid quake Merna Re II cat bond for 2021
   US primary insurance giant State Farm has again returned to the 144A catastrophe bond market for another slice of New Madrid earthquake reinsurance protection to sponsor its latest capital markets deal, a $350 million Merna Re II Ltd. (Series 2021-1) issuance.
8. Basis risk of unmodelled losses needs pricing in: Conduit’s Eckert
   In reinsurance, the impacts of unmodelled losses constitute a form of basis risk and after the last few years this has to begin getting priced in, according to Conduit Holdings Executive Chairman Neil Eckert.
9. Many ILS funds report negative February returns on winter storm impacts
   The majority of insurance-linked securities (ILS) funds have reported a negative return for February 2021 after the impacts of the US winter storm and Texas freeze, according to the latest report from the Eurekahedge ILS Advisers Index.
10. Aeolus hires Lancashire’s Andy Richardson as a Portfolio Manager
    Aeolus Capital Management Ltd., the Bermuda based reinsurance and insurance-linked securities (ILS) focused investment fund manager, has announced a senior property treaty reinsurance hire in Lancashire’s Andy Richardson.

This is not every article published on Artemis during the last week, just the most popular among our readers over the last seven days. There were 30 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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