Best of Artemis, week ending 18th March 2018

Here are the ten most popular news articles, week ending 18th March 2018, 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.

Tickets are now on sale for our upcoming insurance-linked securities (ILS) conference in Asia. ILS Asia 2018 will be held in Singapore on July 12th 2018. In its third year we are looking to go deeper, investigating the ILS sector at a more detailed level and strengthening the connections made at our events. Reserve your space at early bird rates today.

Ten most viewed articles on Artemis.bm, week ending 18th March 2018:

1. Lassa fever outbreak an “Eligible Event” for pandemic cat bond: World Bank
   The World Bank has confirmed that it believes the recent outbreak of Lassa fever in Nigeria is an “Eligible Event” under the terms of the Class B pandemic swaps and pandemic catastrophe bonds that were issued to support the financing of the Pandemic Emergency Financing Facility (PEF).

2. Swiss Re & Nature Conservancy partner for parametric coral reef insurance
   Global reinsurance giant Swiss Re has partnered with The Nature Conservancy (TNC), a leading global nature conservation organisation, to create a parametric insurance policy that can be used to both insure and enhance the resilience of coral reefs and the communities that rely on them.

3. Hannover Re continues to feel competition from capital in 2017
   Despite the record levels of catastrophe losses in 2017 German reinsurance giant Hannover Re has reported group net income of just less than EUR 1 billion, beating its guidance although coming in short compared to the prior year, but the reinsurer notes continued competitive pressure from the capital markets.

4. Arch’s Freddie Mac mortgage risk deal. A glimpse of the future?
   Bermudian insurance and reinsurance firm Arch Capital announced an interesting arrangement with the U.S. mortgage insurer Freddie Mac this week, which will position the re/insurer as an intermediary of sorts, channeling mortgage credit and insurance related risks back to a panel of reinsurance capital providers.

5. Willis Towers Watson launches global insurance facility for resilience
   Insurance and reinsurance brokerage Willis Towers Watson (WTW) has today announced the launch of the Global Ecosystem Resilience Facility, an insurance facility designed to help strengthen the resilience of ecosystems and their communities, through the use of efficient risk transfer where catastrophe bonds may feature.

6. Hiscox offers cyber ILW capacity based on PCS trigger
   Hiscox Re & ILS, the reinsurance and third-party capital management unit of global re/insurer Hiscox, has announced that it is to offer a new cyber industry-loss warranty (ILW) product, which will provide aggregate limits based on the use of a PCS industry loss trigger for global cyber underwriting losses.

7. Singapore’s cat bond grant could total $1.5m saving per issuance
   We’re told that the grant program established by Singapore to attract catastrophe bond issuers to the domicile could total more than US $1.5 million per issue for cat bond transactions that qualify, providing a very attractive cost saving to any sponsors considering the domicile as a home for their insurance-linked securities (ILS).

8. Munich Re forecasts intensifying reinsurance rate rises
   Global reinsurance giant Munich Re is clearly pushing hard for further hardening of the market, forecasting that rates increases will actually “intensify” through at the upcoming renewals in 2018 and perhaps beyond, as the company looks to an improved rate environment to support bold profit forecasts through to 2020.

9. TWIA to put cat bonds & reinsurance at heart of 2018/19 funding
   The Texas Windstorm Insurance Association (TWIA), the largely coastal residual market property insurer in the state, is to return to the catastrophe bond and reinsurance market to secure a new program for 2018, which could result in more capacity being purchased after some of its financial protection has been eroded by hurricane Harvey.

10. CEA’s reinsurance program hits record $8bn, more growth to come
    The California Earthquake Authority (CEA) has reached a new milestone in its use of the private risk transfer markets, as its reinsurance program surpassed $8 billion in size for the first time after the January renewals, with further growth to come as the insurer targets $10 billion of protection by 2022.

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 26 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.

Get listed in our MarketView directory of professionals.

View the current breakdown of the market in our range of charts, allowing you to analyse cat bond issuance.

Check out the assets under management of the ILS fund market with our investment manager directory.