Best of Artemis, week ending 2nd November 2014

Here are the ten most popular news articles, week ending 2nd November 2014, on catastrophe bonds, reinsurance capital and related risk transfer topics, from the last seven days on Artemis. To ensure you never miss a thing  subscribe to the weekly Artemis email newsletter updates.

Top ten most viewed articles on Artemis.bm, week ending 26th October 2014:

1. Willis launches catastrophe bond issuance platform Resilience Re
   Willis Capital Markets & Advisory (WCMA), the catastrophe bond, insurance-linked securities (ILS), M&A and investment banking unit of global insurance and reinsurance broker Willis, has launched a platform to simplify client access to catastrophe bond capacity.

2. Everest Re launches $350m Kilimanjaro Re 2014-2 catastrophe bond
   Bermuda headquartered reinsurance company Everest Re is returning to the catastrophe bond market with its second issuance this year, with the launch to investors of Kilimanjaro Re Ltd. (Series 2014-2) a $350m U.S. and Canada earthquake cat bond.

3. Prudential in $2.2B longevity reinsurance deal with Legal & General
   A unit of Prudential Financial Inc., is providing UK based insurer Legal & General Group with a $2.2 billion (£1.35 billion) longevity reinsurance cover for a portion of its pension bulk annuity business.

4. New Ocean ups income to XL, hires COO, signs distribution agreement
   XL Group’s insurance and reinsurance linked investment unit, New Ocean Capital Management Limited, has increased its contribution in terms of income to XL, hired a COO and signed a distribution agreement with a global financial institution to aid growth.

5. Bank of England quizzes re/insurance firms on climate change risks
   The Bank of England has written to “dozens” of insurance and reinsurance companies as it seeks to better understand the risk that climate change poses to their solvency and earnings, according to the FT.

6. Cheaper cost of reinsurance capital helps homeowners insurers: Aon Benfield
   A new report from reinsurance broker Aon Benfield shows that the cheaper cost of reinsurance capital, both traditional and non-traditional, is improving the outlook for homeowners insurers across the United States.

7. Cat bonds help California Earthquake Authority to offer rate reduction
   The California Earthquake Authority (CEA), the publicly managed residential earthquake insurance provider, is proposing to reduce homeowners rates, as savings made due to catastrophe bonds and lower-cost reinsurance flow through to consumers.

8. Big primary insurers track reinsurance trends, ILS & alternative capital
   As you’d expect, large U.S. primary insurers are monitoring emerging trends in the reinsurance marketplace, particularly the growth of alternative capital and ILS, the emergence of new reinsurance structures and the reduction in reinsurance pricing.

9. XL’s McGavick likes the look of a capital agnostic reinsurance future
   Michael McGavick, CEO of insurance and reinsurance firm XL Group, is looking forward to a reinsurance marketplace of the future, reshaped by new and alternative capital, resulting in a more agnostic approach to matching risk and capital for XL’s clients.

10. Universal Insurance Holdings explores cat bonds for 2015 renewal
    Universal Insurance Holdings, Inc. (NYSE: UVE), a U.S. primary property and casualty insurer, may look to the catastrophe bond market as a way to tap additional alternative sources of ILS capital as part of its 2015 reinsurance renewal.

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 23 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’ Q3 2014 Catastrophe Bond & ILS Market Report – A lazy summer for ILS

We’ve now published our Q3 2014 catastrophe bond & ILS market report.

This report reviews the catastrophe bond and insurance-linked securities (ILS) market at the end of the third-quarter of 2014, looking at the new risk capital issued and the composition of the cat bond & ILS transactions completed during Q3 2014.

Download your copy here.