Best of Artemis, week ending 12th October 2014

Here are the ten most popular news articles, week ending 12th October 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 12th October 2014:

1. Expect $2.5B to $3B of catastrophe bonds in Q4 2014: Paul Schultz, ABS
   Catastrophe bond and insurance-linked securities (ILS) investors and investment managers will be delighted to hear that Aon Benfield Securities CEO Paul Schultz believes the primary ILS issuance market is going to bounce back strongly in the fourth-quarter.

2. Are investors compensated for uncertainty in indemnity cat bonds?
   An interesting question was raised at the recent 2014 Bermuda in Boston conference held by investment bank Macquarie, whether ILS investors are being compensated sufficiently for uncertainty in some indemnity catastrophe bonds and ILS transactions.

3. With $6Bn+ of ILS maturing how could this capital affect the market?
   Over the next few quarters the insurance-linked securities (ILS) and catastrophe bond market will have an opportunity to recycle in excess of $6 billion of third-party reinsurance capital, as cat bond maturities accelerate due to the glut of 2011/12 vintage bonds.

4. Twelve Capital to strengthen ILS analytics capabilities with Kleinn hire
   Zurich, Switzerland based insurance-linked securities (ILS) and reinsurance-linked investment management firm Twelve Capital has announced a new Head of ILS Analytics hire and its intention to further strengthen its ILS analytics and risk modelling capabilities.

5. Interview: Michael Stahel, LGT, on ILS portfolio construction
   This interview with Michael Stahel, Partner at LGT Insurance-Linked Strategies, looks at ILS portfolio construction and the relative merits of diversified and concentrated insurance or reinsurance-linked asset portfolios.

6. ILS rates ‘plunge to new lows’, soft market prevails: Lane Financial
   The pace of decline shown by insurance-linked securities and catastrophe bond premiums or rates has accelerated through the third-quarter of 2014, plunging to new lows, according to the latest analysis from ILS consultancy Lane Financial LLC.

7. Innovate or perish. A message for insurers and reinsurers from Aon
   Insurance and reinsurance broking power house Aon told insurers that they have two stark choices as the re/insurance industry moves into the next stage of its development. Innovate or perish, a message that definitely applies to reinsurance as well.

8. Strong Q3 underwriting results expected, but fundamentals weigh: KBW
   Analysts at Keefe, Bruyette & Woods expect the majority of insurance and reinsurance firms will report strong third-quarter results in the coming few weeks, but warns that market fundamentals haven’t changed and pressure is still apparent on pricing.

9. Analysts say collateralized reinsurance helps Montpelier Re grow
   Analysts at Zacks have praised Bermuda reinsurance company Montpelier Re for strategic initiatives, including its collateralized reinsurance operations under the Blue Capital Management brand, which the analysts say have boosted the firms growth.

10. Japanese insurers expected to buy more reinsurance & cat bonds: Fitch
    Despite losses from recent catastrophe events in Japan being manageable there is an expectation that Japanese non-life insurers will seek to retain less risk on their balance-sheets and make greater use of reinsurance and ILS instruments like catastrophe bonds.

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 17 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’ Q3 2014 Catastrophe Bond & ILS Market Report – A lazy summer for ILS

We’ve now published our Q3 2014 catastrophe bond & ILS market report.

This report reviews the catastrophe bond and insurance-linked securities (ILS) market at the end of the third-quarter of 2014, looking at the new risk capital issued and the composition of the cat bond & ILS transactions completed during Q3 2014.

Download your copy here.