Best of Artemis, week ending 24th February 2019

Here are the ten most popular news articles, week ending 24th February 2019, 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 or get our email alerts for every article we publish.

Ten most viewed articles on Artemis.bm, week ending 24th February 2019:

1. Cat bond market’s merit underscored. Rate hardening expected: Swiss Re
   The catastrophe bond market’s merit was underscored by the way it continued to operate effectively despite recent volatility stimulated by catastrophe losses, but after the losses it is expected that investors will want to see cat bond rates harden, according to Swiss Re.
2. Markel CATCo portfolio no loss return rises to 30% on higher rates
   Markel CATCo Investment Management Ltd., the retrocessional reinsurance investment manager, has successfully secured higher rates at the January renewal, with its listed retro investment fund no loss maximum net return now forecast at 30%, up from 23% in 2018.
3. Butler to lead Cohen & Co. re/insurance & insurtech acquisition vehicle
   John Butler is set to lead a Cohen & Company, LLC backed insurance, reinsurance and insurtech acquisition vehicle which is hoping to raise up to $150 million for its launch as a so-called blank check company.
4. Aspen adds another Peregrine quota share, likely with Stone Ridge
   Bermudian insurance and reinsurance group Aspen Insurance Holdings Limited has continued to expand its use of collateralized reinsurance and ceding risks to third-party capital investors through its Aspen Capital Markets division.
5. Belisle & Fredricks claiming wrongful dismissal from Markel CATCo
   Anthony Belisle, the former CEO of retrocessional reinsurance investment manager Markel CATCo Investment Management and Alissa Fredricks, the former CEO of its Bermuda operations, are both claiming wrongful dismissal from the firm.
6. Capital markets needed to cover the really big catastrophes: Swiss Re CEO, Mumenthaler
   It’s always refreshing to hear that the original premise for the capital markets entry into reinsurance holds true, even for the very largest reinsurers in the world.
7. TransRe returns to sponsor $200m Bowline Re 2019 cat bond
   Transatlantic Holdings, parent company to Transatlantic Reinsurance (or TransRe), is returning to the catastrophe bond market this year with its second ever issuance, a $200 million multi-peril Bowline Re Ltd. (Series 2019-1) transaction.
8. SCOR’s retrocession buffers its results again
   Global reinsurance firm SCOR has once again benefitted from its retrocession over the last year, one factor helping the firm to report higher results year-on-year.
9. Demotech highlights Florida insurers realistic loss reserves & reinsurance
   Demotech affirmed its financial ratings for 51 Florida based primary insurance companies, highlighting their “realistic” loss reserves and saying their reinsurance is of “sufficient quantity and quality” to ensure they receive payouts after suffering losses.
10. AXA XL grows New Ocean ILS assets to $1bn, buys more protection at 1/1
    AXA XL purchased more catastrophe protection at the January 2019 renewals and also continued to increase its use of alternative reinsurance capital, which was evidenced by in-house ILS fund manager New Ocean’s assets under management reaching $1 billion.

This is not every article published on Artemis during the last week, just the most popular, some of which were published over a week ago. There were 32 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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