Best of Artemis, week ending 2nd February 2020

Here are the ten most popular news articles, week ending 2nd February 2020, 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.

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Ten most read articles on Artemis.bm, week ending 2nd February 2020:

1. China most likely coronavirus source for World Bank’s pandemic cat bond
   The worsening outbreak of a novel coronavirus in China has brought the World Bank’s pandemic catastrophe bond transaction back into focus and it turns out that China was seen as the most probable source of a coronavirus outbreak that could trigger the IBRD CAR 111-112 notes.
2. Pacific Life Re reinsures giant £10bn UK longevity swap for Lloyd’s Bank pensions
   Global life, longevity and morbidity reinsurance firm Pacific Life Re has completed the second largest UK longevity swap transaction on record, taking on UK £10 billion of longevity risk from Lloyd’s Banking Group pension funds.
3. Suncorp says “unprecedented” catastrophes will drive reinsurance recoveries
   Australian primary insurance giant Suncorp has referred to an “unprecedented” start to the season for catastrophe losses this morning, saying that it now expects to make recoveries across its reinsurance program, including its main program, drop-downs and aggregate reinsurance including perhaps its stop-loss.
4. Swiss Re targets $275m of hurricane & mortality cat bond cover
   Reinsurance giant Swiss Re is back with a second catastrophe bond for 2020, seeking up to $275 million of retrocessional protection with a Matterhorn Re Ltd. (Series 2020-2) transaction that will cover it against certain losses from U.S. named storms and hurricanes, as well as extreme mortality exposures.
5. TransRe restructures senior underwriting leadership
   TransRe, the Alleghany owned reinsurance brand name for Transatlantic Holdings, has restructured its senior underwriting leadership, making Paul Bonny and Ken Brandt Co-Presidents of Global Underwriting Operations and promoting a number to fill in their previous roles.
6. Caribbean earthquake could prompt CCRIF coverage assessment
   A powerful magnitude 7.7 earthquake struck the Caribbean yesterday in the afternoon local time, swaying buildings as far away as Miami, Florida and causing some localised damage to countries including the Cayman Islands, Jamaica and Cuba.
7. Demand surge said a factor in typhoon Hagibis claims, may elevate industry toll
   Reports from and sources in Japan suggest demand surge is set to be an issue with claims from typhoon Hagibis, as a lack of claims professionals, assessors and loss adjusters has been noted to be slowing the process of insurance claims filing and is expected to inflate claims amounts.
8. Bushfires trap Markel CATCo retro fund capital as Irma creeps again
   The Australian bushfire disaster has caused some capital to be trapped within the listed retrocessional reinsurance investment fund strategy operated by Markel CATCo, while continued loss creep from hurricane Irma also hit exposed positions at the end of 2019.
9. Pillar Capital lifts ILS assets managed 68% over 2019 to reach $1.73bn
   Pillar Capital Management Limited, a Bermuda headquartered specialist collateralized reinsurance and insurance-linked securities (ILS) investment manager, has achieved impressive growth in assets under management over the last year.
10. FEMA returns for third NFIP flood cat bond, a $300m FloodSmart Re 2020
    The U.S. Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) is back in the catastrophe bond market with a $300 million FloodSmart Re Ltd. (Series 2020-1), which will be its third transaction seeking flood reinsurance coverage from the capital market for its National Flood Insurance Program (NFIP).

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 31 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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