Best of Artemis, week ending 29th July 2018

Here are the ten most popular news articles, week ending 29th July 2018, 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 29th July 2018:

1. FEMA’s FloodSmart Re cat bond expands to $500m of reinsurance for the NFIP
   The first catastrophe bond to transfer a portion of the National Flood Insurance Program’s (NFIP) risk to the capital markets will increase significantly in size, as the FloodSmart Re Ltd. (Series 2018-1) issuance is understood to have expanded to $500 million, while pricing has dropped to the bottom of guidance during marketing.

2. Pricing power is gone, negative outlook for Jan 2019 renewal: Deutsche Bank
   Analysts at Deutsche Bank have conclude in a new report that the reinsurance renewals so far this year show that reinsurer pricing power is gone and that price increases seen are insufficient to reimburse reinsurers losses, suggesting a negative outlook for the next major contract signings in January 2019.

3. Reinsurers increased cat exposure means repeat of 2017 could hurt: S&P
   After picking up roughly 20% of the roughly $92 billion of insurance industry losses from major hurricanes Harvey, Irma and Maria, half of the top 20 global reinsurance firms tracked by rating agency Standard & Poor’s have actually increased their exposure to natural catastrophe risks.

4. NFIP hurricane Irma claims hit $1.1bn, far below where new cat bond will sit
   The value of flood insurance claims paid by the National Flood Insurance Program (NFIP) from damage caused by last year’s hurricane Irma have now hit $1.1 billion, which remains well below where the first NFIP flood catastrophe bond will attach once its issuance is completed.

5. Aon’s White Rock protected cell facility continues to experience growth
   Insurance and reinsurance broker Aon’s protected cell facilities under the White Rock Group brand continue to experience growth in terms of clients and cells established, with insurance-linked securities (ILS) and collateralised reinsurance a key driver.

6. Cat bond spreads declined but multiples rose in second-quarter of 2018
   The spread of excess returns possible between expected loss and catastrophe bond yields at issuance narrowed slightly during the second-quarter of 2018, as the weight of capital pressured rates causing multiples also to dip slightly, data from Artemis shows.

7. RenRe bucks loss creep trend as 2017 cat loss estimates plummet
   Bermudian reinsurance firm and third-party capital manager RenaissanceRe will have pleased shareholders and the institutional investors backing its insurance-linked investment strategies with its second-quarter results, as it revealed a significant drop in loss estimates for the 2017 catastrophe events.

8. Guernsey targets “true convergence” via all in one ILS structure
   As the insurance-linked securities (ILS) market continues to expand the need for new structures and increased efficiency is growing across the sector, a trend that has seen the island domicile of Guernsey push for the development of a more transparent vehicle for investors that supports “true convergence” in ILS.

9. Alternative capital, re/insurer surplus stabilises property market: AmWINS
   The U.S. property insurance market is characterised by abundant capacity, but one of the benefits of the growth of alternative reinsurance capital and its appetite for catastrophe risk, alongside ample re/insurer surplus, is the expectation that this will produce a stable property market, according to AmWINS.

10. AXIS’ cessions to third-party capital partners continue to rise in Q2
    Cessions to third-party capital partners continued to balloon at Bermudian insurance and reinsurance specialist AXIS Capital Holdings Limited in the second-quarter, as the firm continued the trend of placing an increasing reliance on its “strategic capital partners.”

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 24 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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