Best of Artemis, week ending 23rd April 2017

Here are the ten most popular news articles, week ending 23rd April 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 23rd April 2017:

1. Cat bond market hits record at $27.7bn, as 2017 issuance passes $4bn
   The catastrophe bond market has reached a new all-time high at almost $27.7 billion of risk capital outstanding, as the settlement and closing today of reinsurance firm Everest Re’s $1.25 billion Kilimanjaro II Re 2017-1 and Kilimanjaro II Re 2017-2 take this year’s issuance to $4.031 billion.

2. U.S. thunderstorm insured loss hits Q1 record at $5.7bn: Aon Benfield
   The latest data from Impact Forecasting shows that U.S. severe thunderstorms and convective weather are estimated to have caused insurance and reinsurance markets at least $5.7 billion of losses, making the first-quarter of 2017 the most costly Q1 on record for this peril.

3. Cincinnati’s thunderstorm losses to erode Skyline Re cat bond buffer
   Catastrophe losses suffered by primary insurer The Cincinnati Insurance Companies (Cincinnati) during the first-quarter of 2017 have now reached approximately $106 million (pretax), according to the insurer, which will have eroded some of the buffering layers and retention beneath its $180 million Skyline Re Ltd. (Series 2017-1) private cat bond.

4. 2017 hurricane forecasts suggest below average season due to El Niño
   A number of forecasts have been released for the 2017 Atlantic Tropical Storm & Hurricane Season and so far all are calling for activity levels just below the long-term average, with the expectation that we will see a weak El Niño by the typical peak of the season suggesting a slower year.

5. Senate urged to give NFIP access to more reinsurance, “securities vehicles”
   A Senate committee has been urged to consider legislation that would allow the National Flood Insurance Program (NFIP) to cede more risk to private reinsurance markets and to allow it “explicit access” to more “securities vehicles”, which could help the flood catastrophe bond cause.

6. New members expected for World Bank Pacific parametric insurance facility
   The World Bank hopes to sign on new member countries for its parametric insurance facility, the Pacific Catastrophe Risk Assessment and Financing Initiative (PCRAFI), as the latest phase of the initiative has already encouraged two new enquiries.

7. ILS capital up 7%, while underlying reinsurance RoE’s shrink further: Willis
   Insurance-linked securities (ILS) and alternative reinsurance capital continued to grow in 2016, rising from $70 billion by over 7% in the year to reach $75 billion, while at the same time the underlying return-on-equity (RoE) of the reinsurance sector has continued to shrink, according to data from Willis Re.

8. Will ILS regulations offer UK re/insurance a competitive advantage?
   Bringing insurance-linked securities (ILS) to London is clearly a hot topic and an important step for the regulators and facilitators in making London a modern, capital agnostic hub for global insurance and reinsurance business, but is it going to be enough to offer a competitive advantage? We also revealed that the ILS regulations will now be delayed until after the upcoming UK general election.

9. Allstate & Travelers Q1 cat loss suggests rising hit to collateralized markets
   Two of the largest insurers in the U.S., Allstate and Travelers, have both revealed first-quarter 2017 catastrophe losses today and the higher than expected figures are likely to be reflected in a rising attritional hit to some ILS funds and collateralized reinsurance structures.

10. Ecuador quake insured loss pegged at $575m
    The powerful magnitude 7.8 earthquake that struck Ecuador just over a year ago is now expected to result in an insurance industry loss of $575 million, with reinsurance markets having taken a share. However the overall economic impact to the country had been put at over $4 billion, reflecting the protection gap in Latin America.

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 17 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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