Best of Artemis, week ending 22nd March 2015

Here are the ten most popular news articles, week ending 22nd March 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 22nd March 2015:

1. UK Gov budget targets ILS & cat bonds, aims to become ILS domicile
   The United Kingdom government will seek to develop a corporate and tax structure that allows for insurance-linked securities (ILS) such as catastrophe bonds to be domiciled locally.

2. Longevity reinsurance becoming more competitive: Hannover Re
   The global reinsurance market is becoming increasingly attracted to longevity risks, resulting in greater competition for every longevity reinsurance transaction and causing some of the largest reinsurers to adopt a conservative approach to the segment.

3. Catastrophe model gaps an opportunity for reinsurance and ILS: Karen Clark
   For those in management tasked with risk analysis, risk strategy implementation and long-term views of risk, the probable maximum loss (PML) “is not a useful number,” stressed Karen Clark during a speech at the SIFMA event in the U.S. recently.

4. Alternative reinsurance pressure to increase, but it’s not reckless: KBW
   Pressure from “cyclical softness” in the global reinsurance market will increase as alternative or third-party sources of reinsurance capital expand their horizons, but evidence suggests they’re not behaving recklessly according to analysts at KBW.

5. Munich Re tries again with $100m Queen Street X Re 2015 cat bond
   The world’s largest reinsurance firm Munich Re is returning to the catastrophe bond market, trying again to issue a $100m Queen Street X Re Limited (2015) catastrophe bond to provide it with retrocessional protection for U.S. hurricane and Australian cyclone risks.

6. ACE & Blackrock’s ABR Re files offering to raise $800m to $1.3B
   ABR Reinsurance Capital Holdings Ltd., the much discussed joint venture reinsurer from insurer ACE Limited and investment bank Blackrock, has filed a securities offering which suggests that the reinsurer will look to raise between $800m and $1.3 billion of capital for launch.

7. Expect convergence of traditional & alternative reinsurance: John Charman
   John Charman, the sometimes outspoken, often insightful CEO of Bermudian insurance and reinsurance firm Endurance Specialty Holdings, said that he believes that we will see an increasing convergence between the traditional and alternative sides of the market.

8. Vloedman to launch Redmond Reinsurance Investment Interval Fund
   A new ILS and reinsurance linked interval fund is launching under the watch of ex-Anchor Risk Advisors and experienced ILS exec Pete Vloedman. The Redmond Reinsurance Investment Interval Fund is being launched with Vloedman as its portfolio manager.

9. Louisiana Citizens back with $100m Pelican III Re catastrophe bond
   As expected Louisiana Citizens Property Insurance is returning to the catastrophe bond market for the third time with a new SPI vehicle to sponsor a $100m or greater Pelican III Re Ltd. (Series 2015-1) indemnity bond.

10. State National: Alternative capital to drive fronting business demand
    State National Companies, a provider of program services and fronting for insurance, reinsurance and ILS capital, expects the growing role of alternative capital markets in reinsurance to drive further demand for its fronting services.

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 27 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’ Q4 2014 Catastrophe Bond & ILS Market Report – A busy finish to a record year for ILS

We’ve now published our Q4 2014 catastrophe bond & ILS market report.

This report reviews the catastrophe bond and insurance-linked securities (ILS) market at the end of the fourth-quarter of 2014, looking at the new risk capital issued and the composition of the cat bond & ILS transactions completed during Q4 2014. It also includes a brief review of the full-year 2014’s record issuance.

Download your copy here.