Best of Artemis, week ending 19th January 2020

Here are the ten most popular news articles, week ending 19th January 2020, 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.

Register here to attend our ILS NYC 2020 conference on Feb 7th.
Get your ticket now to avoid disappointment!

Ten most read articles on Artemis.bm, week ending 19th January 2020:

1. Aegon to close down ILS investing unit
   Netherlands headquartered global life insurance company, annuities provider and pension investment manager Aegon is shuttering its dedicated ILS investment operations and will run-off the current portfolio of risks it had invested in during 2019, we can report.
2. “Significant” reinsurance rate increases likely for Florida and Japan: S&P
   The market could achieve “significant” reinsurance rate increases at the upcoming Japanese renewals in April and Florida renewals in June, as these two markets face some level of re-pricing on the back of catastrophes and market issues, according to S&P.
3. Frontline Re cat bond trades at rock-bottom on hurricane Michael loss creep
   The $350 million Frontline Re Ltd. (Series 2018-1) catastrophe bond transaction, that was sponsored by U.S. primary insurer Frontline Insurance in 2018, has seen one tranche trade at almost rock-bottom pricing on the threat of losses from hurricane Michael hitting the attachment point.
4. Stone Ridge raises ~$1.5bn to deploy in quota shares including non-cat risks
   Stone Ridge Asset Management has raised significant new funds and commitments for quota share reinsurance investing for 2020, with these new funds raised outside of the managers typical mutual ILS funds and CEO Ross Stevens saying this new strategy will support about $1.5 billion of assets and also invest in non-catastrophe risks.
5. Trapped ILS capital & lack of retro not as big a renewal issue as expected
   As the January 2020 reinsurance renewals fast approached the two issues of trapped ILS capital and dented retrocessional capacity proved not to be as big or impactful as anticipated, with the market still managing to clear, partly thanks to the increased appetite and re-entry of large traditional players.
6. Swiss Re assists with “pioneering” parametric cat bond for investor Bayview
   Swiss Re Capital Markets, the insurance-linked securities (ILS) focused unit of the global reinsurance firm, has successfully helped to bring the first parametric catastrophe bond covering some of the earthquake risks in a portfolio of mortgage investments to market.
7. ILS NYC 2020: Update on speakers, agenda & who’s attending
   There is now just a few weeks to go until our next insurance-linked securities (ILS) conference in New York, Artemis ILS NYC 2020. Here’s our latest update on speakers, our updated agenda and more details on who you can meet on the day.
8. Florida market strains may drive reinsurance & private debt demand
   The Florida insurance market is in a state of flux, as strains from recent years have begun to drive ratings assessments and a situation where capitalisation is key, leading to a number of carrier disposals and a likelihood that both reinsurance capital and private debt will become more in-demand.
9. Tremor, on making reinsurance placements more effective & efficient
   Tremor Technologies Inc., the programmatic insurance and reinsurance risk transfer marketplace provider, believes that through the use of technology such as its own the reinsurance placement process can be made much faster and more accurate, with better outcomes possible for both sides of the deal.
10. Taal volcanic eruption could be a quake threat to Philippines cat bond
    The Taal volcano in the Philippines which began erupting yesterday poses a potential threat to the Philippines government’s  IBRD CAR 123-124 catastrophe bond transaction, which would be on-risk should a major earthquake occur due to the volcano’s current active state.

This is not every article published on Artemis during the last week, just the most popular, some of which were published over a week ago. There were 34 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 ILS 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 ILS investment manager directory.