Best of Artemis, week ending 24th June 2012

We’re now well into the 2012 Atlantic tropical storm season and we have our first real threat to land with a storm called Debby which is currently patrolling the Gulf.  As ever, the catastrophe bond market slows at this time of year and primary issuance reduces. Hence our news volume reduces somewhat but we keep bringing you our unique opinions on the markets that interest us. If you enjoy our articles you should also subscribe to our weekly email newsletter. Here are the ten most popular articles from the last seven days on Artemis.

Top ten most viewed articles on Artemis.bm, week ending 24th June 2012:

1. Investment capital flowing into re/insurance market might be stickier
   We discuss the inflows of capital that have been seen moving into the reinsurance and catastrophe linked investment markets in recent months and whether investor interest in the sector may be stickier this time and more likely to become a permanent feature.
2. In the current economic climate would political risk catastrophe bonds be viable?
   Given the risks posed by the current economic and political crisis in Europe, would it be possible to issue a political risk catastrophe bond to hedge the risks of a Greek exit or a Eurozone collapse.
3. Insurance-linked security (ILS) funds performance improves again in May
   Insurance-linked security funds continue to benefit from unseasonable gains in outstanding cat bond price returns making May their best month of the year so far.
4. For Assurant catastrophe bonds broaden coverage and access additional capital sources
   Cat bond sponsor Assurant appreciate the diversification that issuing a cat bond brings to their reinsurance program.
5. Capital requirements for catastrophes could increase under Solvency II & RMS V11
   Some interesting insight from reinsurance broker Willis Re discusses the impact of the new RMS V11 model on European re/insurers and the modeling of European windstorm risks. Could increases in the view of risk lead to a greater capital requirement under Solvency II?
6. Non-traditional reinsurance capacity puts pressure on traditional Bermuda
   The influx of non-traditional capital into the Bermuda reinsurance market puts pressure on traditional players who cannot raise rates as much as they may have liked.
7. EQECAT puts Typhoon Guchol insured losses under $500m. Catastrophe bond losses unlikely
   Risk modeller EQECAT estimates that insured losses from typhoon Guchol should remain below $500m in Japan. This figure is not likely to be high enough to cause any concern for exposed cat bonds in the region.
8. Argo Group hires Mark Gibson, ex BNP Paribas, as Director of Alternative Risk Capital
   Re/insurance group Argo show their continuing focus to the alternative reinsurance and risk transfer sector with the hire of a highly experienced convergence market exec.
9. Tighter regulation, increasing capital requirements, could give catastrophe bonds an edge
   Will the combined pressures of tighter regulation and increasing capital requirements push the re/insurance industries to look even more closely at alternative forms of capital and risk transfer including catastrophe bonds?
10. Losses from one day’s hail in June could outstrip April tornado losses in Texas
    Once again the peril of hail storms shows how damaging it can be after a single days hail storm in Texas looks set to cause significant insured losses. We discuss the potential for alternative or parametric re/insurance products to cover this risk.