Best of Artemis, week ending 29th January 2017

Here are the ten most popular news articles, week ending 29th January 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 29th January 2017:

1. Suncorp pushes more NZ quake claims to reinsurers, blows cat budget (again)
   Australian insurer Suncorp Group has revealed a further deterioration in its 2010 and 2011 Canterbury, New Zealand earthquake losses, increasing provisions by NZ$112 million (just over US$80m) with the majority to be passed on to its reinsurance providers.

2. $200m Leo Re funded by PGGM administered pension fund PFZW
   The recently issued $200 million Leo Re Ltd. collateralised reinsurance sidecar transaction was funded by Dutch pension fund manager PGGM on behalf of one of the pension funds it administers, the Dutch healthcare and social welfare sector’s PFZW.

3. Steve McGill, Aon President, CEO of Risk Solutions, to depart
   Steve McGill, Group President of Aon Plc and the Chairman and CEO of the firms Risk Solutions group, that includes reinsurance brokerage Aon Benfield, has stepped down this morning, Artemis has been told.

4. Healthy pipeline of ILS deals expected in 2017: LGT ILS Partners
   In a recent interview with Artemis, Christian Bruns, Hilary Paul, Pascal Koller, and Michael Stahel, LGT ILS Partners Portfolio Managers, noted an expectation for continued ILS sector growth in the coming months as market dynamics suggest additional interest in the space is likely.

5. Cat bond issuance to gather pace, $8bn forecast for 2017: Aon
   Insurance-linked securities (ILS) and catastrophe bond issuance is expected to gather pace into 2017, as the market carries on from a positive end to 2016, and is expected to reinvest large quantities of capital from maturities, according to Aon Securities.

6. U.S. P/C market underwriting loss could mean opportunities
   An increase in catastrophe losses, less favourable loss reserve development and continued market headwinds saw private U.S. property/casualty (P/C) insurers record an unprofitable first nine months in 2016, according to data from ISO and the Property Casualty Insurers Association of America (PCI).

7. ILS funds average 5.18% return for 2016, up from prior year
   Insurance-linked securities (ILS), pure catastrophe bond and reinsurance-linked investment funds have managed an average return of 5.18% for the full-year 2016, which is up almost a percent from 2015’s 4.24%.

8. Increased reinsurance demand = ILS market growth
   Analysts at RBC Capital Markets highlighted a good point in a recent report, that the growth of insurance-linked securities (ILS), particularly the increasing market share of collateralised reinsurance, has taken away demand from the traditional market.

9. Bottom of the soft reinsurance market remains elusive: Fitch
   While the rate of decline in reinsurance pricing has been seen to have slowed, the bottom of this soft market remains elusive, as ample traditional and alternative capital continue to weigh, according to Fitch Ratings.

10. Canadian pensions to increasingly seek longevity swaps in 2017
    Pension plans in Canada are expected to increasingly look to insurance and reinsurance capital to offload the risks of their pensioners living longer than expected through longevity swaps in 2017, according to a report.

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 28 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 2016 Catastrophe Bond & ILS Market Report – Market reaches new heights

We’ve now published our Q4 2016 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 2016, looking at the new risk capital issued and the composition of transactions completed during Q4 2016.

Q4 saw $2.13 billion of risk capital issued from six transactions, exceeding the ten-year average for the quarter by approximately $337 million. Strong investor and sponsor appetite throughout 2016 helped the market end the year at a new record size, of $26.82 billion.

Download your copy here.