Best of Artemis, week ending 2nd December 2012

Once again the market has been dominated by discussion of loss estimates for hurricane Sandy in the last week. We also had more news on an interesting fund launch, news of a novel life reinsurance transaction and insight into how to make cat bonds cheaper. As always, you can read every market news story and article on the Artemis news blog, subscribe to our weekly email newsletter update and for your convenience 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 2nd December 2012:

1. AIR increases hurricane Sandy insured loss estimate by over 70%
   Risk modeller AIR Worldwide has published an update to their estimate of insured losses resulting from hurricane Sandy today and the numbers have jumped considerably.
2. At industry loss of $20B some cat bonds will see notional losses from Sandy: Credit Suisse
   Another event report on hurricane Sandy and the superstorms potential impact on reinsurance and the catastrophe bond market has been published by investment manager Credit Suisse.
3. A price-driven placement strategy can make smaller catastrophe bonds cost-effective
   Interesting insight from Munich Re’s Risk Trading team looking at how the cost of issuing a 144A security can deter smaller insurers from issuing cat bonds and suggesting one way to help make issuing a smaller cat bond transaction more cost-effective.
4. Buffett’s Berkshire Hathaway bets on future values of life insurance
   Interesting news as Warren Buffet’s Berkshire Hathaway Inc. entered into a reinsurance agreement with Spanish insurance company VidaCaixa, Sociedad Anónima de Seguros y Reaseguros, a wholly owned subsidiary of Spain’s CaixaBank S.A.
5. Lloyd’s warns of $168 billion catastrophe insurance deficit in high growth countries
   A report published by Lloyd’s of London highlights an opportunity for the reinsurance and capital markets convergence sector by warning of an annualised $168 billion insurance deficit that they say leaves 17 high growth countries severely exposed to the long-term costs of catastrophic events.
6. ILS funds, flooded with cash, drive ILS and cat bond market to record size
   At the end of the third-quarter the total size of the outstanding catastrophe bond market reached a record level thanks to ILS funds being flooded with cash from large inflows of new capital from asset managers.
7. Credit Suisse implements side-pockets for Sandy exposed investments in CS Iris
   In a report sent to investors in its CS IRIS Low Volatility Plus Fund, investment manager Credit Suisse has announced that they intend to implement side-pockets for any investments potentially exposed to losses from hurricane Sandy
8. Blue Capital Global Reinsurance Fund launch details emerge
   Montpelier Re’s planned reinsurance and retrocessional linked investment fund, Blue Capital Global Reinsurance Fund Limited, is getting closer to launch with the publication today of a listing announcement and prospectus for its first public share offering.
9. Allstate’s Sandy loss estimate points to industry loss below $20B
   U.S. insurer Allstate, who have one of the largest market shares across the northeast and mid-Atlantic states which were impacted by super-storm Sandy, has published an estimate for losses suffered by the Allstate group from the hurricane.
10. Residential Reinsurance 2012-2 cat bond prices at lower end of range
    The latest cat bond to come to market has completed successfully and with attractive pricing for the sponsor. Residential Reinsurance 2012 Ltd. (Series 2012-2) is the 19th transaction from regular cat bond sponsor USAA and the first to come to market containing U.S. hurricane risk since Sandy

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