Best of Artemis, week ending 3rd December 2017

Here are the ten most popular news articles, week ending 3rd December 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 3rd December 2017:

1. Excess capacity has largely evaporated following hurricanes: Swiss Re
   Adding further weight to its calls for reinsurance pricing to rise significantly, reinsurer Swiss Re said that it believes that the excess capacity that has fueled the soft market in recent years has largely evaporated in the wake of the hurricanes, with the trapping of collateral from alternative markets a key reason for this.

2. Ascot Re launches with $1bn of pension backing, Berger as CEO
   Ascot Reinsurance Company Limited (Ascot Re) is being launched in Bermuda as a Class 3B reinsurance company by Ascot Group Limited, with a $1 billion injection of capital from the Canada Pension Plan Investment Board (CPPIB) and ex-Third Point Re CEO John Berger lined up to lead the company.

3. Markel CATCo raises $543m for listed Reinsurance Opportunities Fund
   Markel CATCo Investment Management Ltd., the collateralized reinsurance and retrocessional investment fund manager, has successfully raised $543 million of new capital from investors for its stock exchange listed retrocession focused CATCo Reinsurance Opportunities Fund.

4. USAA extends maturity for $40m of ResRe 2013-2 cat bond tranche
   U.S. primary military mutual insurer USAA has opted to extend the maturity of half of the principal of one tranche of its Residential Reinsurance 2013 Ltd. (Series 2013-2) catastrophe bond, electing to hold back $40 million of collateral to allow for loss development from the California wildfires.

5. Some private ILS lines could see rate increases of 30% or more: Twelve Capital
   The insurance-linked securities (ILS) market responded well to recent intense pressure from third-quarter catastrophe events, and there’s an opportunity for ILS players to take advantage of premium increases of up to 30% or higher, according to insurance and reinsurance linked investment specialist manager, Twelve Capital.

6. Ascot Re to start with Syndicate 1414 quota share reinsurance
   Ascot Reinsurance Company Limited (Ascot Re), the newly registered Bermuda reinsurance platform for the Ascot Group, will begin its operations acting as a kind of third-party capitalised sidecar for the Ascot Syndicate 1414, by taking a quota share from the firms Lloyd’s operations.

7. Munich Re sees ongoing re/insurance price pressure: CEO
   Reinsurance giant Munich Re forecasts ongoing price pressure in insurance and reinsurance, leading the firm’s CEO Joachim Wenning to forecast that profits will remain stable, but are unlikely to return to levels seen in prior years.

8. Brit launches Scion Underwriting, to partner with third-party capital
   Specialty insurance and reinsurance firm Brit Ltd. has announced the launch of a new specialty re/insurance platform, Scion Underwriting Managers, which it says will partner both with its own balance-sheet, other markets and also third-party capital providers.

9. Capital could still limit 1/1 reinsurance rate increases: KBW
   Despite estimating global catastrophe losses of $92.5 billion in the third-quarter of 2017, analysts at Keefe, Bruyette & Woods (KBW) expect the availability of both traditional and alternative reinsurance capital to limit rate increases in 2018, while market themes persist.

10. UK ILS regulations to “grow the ILS pie” – London Market Group
    The approval of the UK’s Risk Transformation Regulations 2017 and the Risk Transformation (Tax) Regulations 2017 yesterday by a Parliamentary Delegated Legislation Committee, will ultimately help to “grow the ILS pie”, according to the Chairman of the London Market Group’s (LMG’s) ILS Taskforce.

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 21 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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