Best of Artemis, week ending 20th December 2015

Here are the ten most popular news articles, week ending 20th December 2015, 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.

Top ten most viewed articles on Artemis.bm, week ending 20th December 2015:

1. Warren Buffett continues to dial back on reinsurance
   Warren Buffett has again reduced his investment in the reinsurance industry by cutting his share holdings in the world’s largest reinsurer Munich Re, as the ‘Sage of Omaha’ continues to dial back on his firm Berkshire Hathaway’s interest in reinsurance underwriting.

2. Mercer, Zurich, Pacific Life Re in ‘named life’ longevity hedge
   Consultancy Mercer, insurance firm Zurich and reinsurance firm Pacific Life Re have assisted an unnamed UK pension plan to offload the longevity exposure associated with a “named life” group of pensioners in a streamlined longevity hedge.

3. Lloyd’s of London to launch Lloyd’s Index service for risk transfer
   Lloyd’s of London, the oldest and only true insurance and reinsurance marketplace in the world, is planning to launch the Lloyd’s Index, an index for diversified insurance risks, featuring loss ratios and data on insurance market performance.

4. Re/insurance rate pressure may be greater than forecast in 2016: PwC
   Insurance and reinsurance players in the London market are facing further “significant” price declines in 2016 and 1 in 4 may have to rely on their investment returns to make a profit, as recent market conditions look set to erode profitability, according to PwC.

5. 2016 Atlantic hurricane forecasts suggest possible return to average
   The early forecasts and outlooks for the 2016 Atlantic tropical storm and hurricane season seem to suggest a possible return towards more average conditions, with a 97% landfall probability for the U.S. coastline, as the current El Niño impacts may wane.

6. People are starting to see insurance as an asset class: Nelson, Lloyd’s
   What a difference two years can make. In September 2013 John Nelson, Chairman of the Lloyd’s of London insurance and reinsurance market, had warned that mismanagement of third-party capital in re/insurance could lead to “systemic” issues in the market.

7. Re/insurers can expect “much of the same” at January renewals: Wells Fargo
   Absent any significant catastrophe events, insurers and reinsurers will see “much of the same” during the next 12 months, as continued pressures from alternative capital, excess traditional capacity, high competition and low losses, result in rate declines and a continuation of the buyers market we see today.

8. EIOPA highlights importance of “risk-adequate” reinsurance pricing
   Europe’s insurance and reinsurance sector watchdog, the European Insurance and Occupational Pensions Authority (EIOPA), highlights the continued and ongoing threat that current reinsurance market conditions pose to the traditional business model.

9. Clear Blue fronting carrier officially launches with Pine Brook backing
   Clear Blue Financial Holdings LLC, the newly formed commercial insurance fronting carrier has officially launched today and will begin servicing clients immediately as a pure fronting services provider through its two fully licensed and rated insurance carriers.

10. Cat bond deal-flow stimulates greater secondary liquidity in November
    An increase in primary catastrophe bond deal-flow, as well as the approach of the key reinsurance renewals on 1st January, stimulated greater liquidity in the secondary market for cat bonds in November.

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 25 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 the cat bond market.

Artemis’ Q3 2015 Catastrophe Bond & ILS Market Report – A market making steady progress

We’ve now published our Q3 2015 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 2015, looking at the $1.093 billion of new risk capital issued and the composition of the cat bond & ILS transactions completed during Q3 2015.

Download your copy here.