Best of Artemis, week ending 23rd September 2012

Last week saw the market get back to work after the Monte Carlo meetings. As usual that means news was a little slower, although what news did break has been particularly interesting. As always, you can read everything on the Artemis news blog and here are the ten most popular news articles from the last seven days on Artemis.

Top ten most viewed articles on Artemis.bm, week ending 23rd September 2012:

1. EU may delay Solvency II insurance capital rules to 2015
   European Commissioner Michel Barnier, who is responsible for the implementation of the Solvency II regulatory rules, has proposed to halt the talks discussing the issue until a new study can be undertaken into the impact of Solvency II on insurers and reinsurers.
2. Munich Re considering launching insurance-linked securities (ILS) fund
   We broke the news about Munich Re’s plans to launch an ILS fund which would invest predominantly in catastrophe bonds. We followed it up with more details from an interview with a Munich Re spokesperson in this second article which contains much more information on the planning for the fund: ‘More details on Munich Re’s plans to launch an ILS & catastrophe bond fund‘.
3. ILS market has a long way to go before it can realise its full potential: PwC
   A recent report published by the PwC insurance and reinsurance team contains some interesting insights into the ILS and cat bond market and poses some pertinent questions which point at where the market may need to focus in order to achieve the next level of growth.
4. Heineken seeks longevity swap quotes for pension plan risk transfer
   The longevity swap market has been notably quiet in 2012, as broader economic factors seemed to put a stop to transactions in the space after a relatively busy 2011. Now it seems that things might begin to pick up as it has been reported that Heineken UK, a brewer of beer and cider products, is actively seeking quotes for a longevity swap for one of its pension plans.
5. ILS market returns approaching ten year annual averages: Aon Benfield
   Despite the severe catastrophe loss burden from 2011, which saw a number of catastrophe bonds impacted by events in Japan and the tornadoes in the U.S., the insurance-linked securities (ILS) market continued to provide investors with competitive returns when compared to other similarly rated securities.
6. Catastrophe bond price return index close to highest point this year
   Here’s our latest look at the Swiss Re Cat Bond Performance Indices (our last article here) to see what they can tell us about movements in pricing and returns of outstanding catastrophe bonds and the general sentiment of the cat bond and insurance-linked securities marketplace.
7. Everglades Re added 30 new participants to Florida Citizens reinsurance program
   Through the use of the cat bond market for the first time, Florida Citizens managed to attract 30 new sources of capital to their reinsurance program.
8. U.S. property exposed to wildfire valued at $136 billion says report
   The CoreLogic Wildfire Hazard Risk Report identifies more than 740,000 residences across 13 western U.S. states which CoreLogic says are currently at high or very high risk of wildfire damage.
9. Pelican Re catastrophe bond pricing dropped over 4% due to hurricane Isaac
   The catastrophe bond most at risk of default from hurricane Isaac was the $125m Pelican Re Ltd. Pelican Re is an indemnity cat bond, providing cover to Louisiana Citizens, the property insurer of last resort for the state
10. CATCo expect fund will deliver a net return of 20%+ in 2012
    CATCo Investment Management, the specialist Bermuda based reinsurance-linked investment business who manage around $2 billion of retrocessional reinsurance portfolios for their clients, have said today that they expect their fund, the CATCo Reinsurance Opportunities Fund, to deliver a net return in excess of 20% this year.

If you’ve missed any of our weekly catch-ups due to being on vacation you can find them all here.

You can subscribe to our weekly email newsletter update.

If you’re looking for details on catastrophe bond and ILS transactions our Deal Directory has more than 260 listed.

If you want to track hurricanes or tropical storms visit our 2012 Atlantic Hurricane Season page.