Best of Artemis, week ending 21st May 2017

Here are the ten most popular news articles, week ending 21st May 2017, 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.

Ten most viewed articles on Artemis.bm, week ending 21st May 2017:

1. Cat bond issuance in 2017 overtakes FY 2016, market hits $28bn record
   Catastrophe bond issuance in 2017 has already reached $7.14 billion, according to Artemis’ data, which means that the year’s deal volume has already overtaken the full-year 2016 issuance, helping the outstanding market achieve a new record size at $28 billion.

2. Reinsurance pricing won’t turn this year, market bottom elusive: Fitch
   Reinsurance pricing is unlikely to change its course in 2017, with further declines in anticipated and the soft market environment likely to be prolonged as the bottom of the market remains elusive, according to Fitch Ratings.

3. ILS Asia 2017 venue revealed & more speakers announced
   Early Bird discounted ticket sales will soon end for our ILS Asia 2017 conference, which is being held on the 13th July 2017 in Singapore, so get yours now. Today we’re pleased to reveal the venue for our second annual conference in Singapore and can name some more of our speaker faculty.

4. Duperreault gets AIG top job, AIG gets Hamilton Re’s reinsurance capital
   As the market had expected, Brian Duperreault was named as the new Chief Executive Officer of insurer American International Group (AIG) today. At the same time AIG and Hamilton Re have announced a new agreement, that will enable AIG to use Hamilton as an “alternative source of reinsurance capital.”

5. Markel CATCo looks to raise more capital for mid-year renewals
   Reinsurance and retrocessional reinsurance linked investment management firm Markel CATCo Investment Management Ltd. is looking to raise new capital from investors to increase its available capacity for deployment at the mid-year renewals, as the manager sees opportunities with both existing and new counterparties.

6. Swiss Re in Taiwan parametric aquaculture insurance first
   Global reinsurance firm Swiss Re, with the assistance of local specialist insurer Taiwan Fire & Marine Insurance, has developed the first parametric aquaculture insurance solution covering fish farmers in Taiwan against extreme rainfall.

7. Rochdale mutual ILS fund to target $500m, strategy details revealed
   In its first two years of operation, the City National Rochdale Select Strategies Fund which has been launched as a U.S. 1940’s Act mutual insurance and reinsurance linked securities fund by a subsidiary of the Royal Bank of Canada, will target raising ILS assets under management of $500 million in its first two years of operation.

8. Capital markets a natural fit for cyber risks, as evidenced by WannaCry
   The WannaCry cyber attack, also called WCry or Wanna Decryptor, that hit targets in at least 150 countries across the globe in the last week is an example of the kind of wide-ranging cyber risk exposure that the capital markets and risk transfer instruments in the insurance-linked securities (ILS) space could be a natural fit for.

9. InsurTech enables Ventus to provide “superior risk” to the ILS space: Interview
   In an interview with Artemis, Founders of Ventus Risk Management, Stuart Mercer and George Reeth, discussed the MGA’s themes and goals in respect of the current ILS and broader re/insurance market environment.

10. CEA pleased with cost-efficiency of latest Ursa Re cat bond
    The California Earthquake Authority (CEA) has now completed its latest catastrophe bond transaction, with the $925 million Ursa Re Ltd. (Series 2017-1) becoming the insurers largest capital markets risk transfer deal to-date. CFO Tim Richison spoke to Artemis about the deal and told us that the combination of size and price made the deal particularly cost-effective.

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 29 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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