Best of Artemis, week ending 6th December 2015

Here are the ten most popular news articles, week ending 6th December 2015, 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.

Top ten most viewed articles on Artemis.bm, week ending 6th December 2015:

1. No one better to manage world’s risks than re/insurers: UN’s Figueres
   There is “no one better able to help the world manage its risks” than the insurance and reinsurance industry (and we would venture the ILS market), according to Christiana Figueres, Executive Secretary of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change.

2. Catastrophe bond market hits new record size at $25.512 billion
   The outstanding catastrophe bond market has reached a new record size at $25.512 billion and 2015’s cat bond issuance to date has now hit $7.216 billion, thanks to the completion of Bermudian reinsurance firm Everest Re’s latest deal, the $625m Kilimanjaro Re 2015-1.

3. Bank of England to review ILS & alternative capital risks in H1 2016
   The UK’s Bank of England has been asked to review the potential for risks to arise from insurance-linked securities (ILS), catastrophe bonds and alternative reinsurance capital, as these practices can “create connections between insurance risks and other financial intermediaries.”

4. Cat bonds can help provide $200-300bn for climate change shocks: Rockefeller Foundation
   Catastrophe bonds are an innovative financial tool that can be leveraged in the goal to provide the world with access to the $200-$300 billion of capital required to help countries combat climate change shocks, according to the Rockefeller Foundation.

5. RAC Pension Scheme in $900m longevity swap to SCOR
   The RAC (2003) Pension Scheme has entered into a longevity swap transaction which sees $900 million (£600m) of its longevity exposure transferred to French reinsurance firm SCOR SE, removing one-quarter of the pension schemes longevity risk.

6. Swiss Re launches Vita Capital VI excess mortality catastrophe bond
   One of the world’s largest reinsurance companies Swiss Re is returning to the capital markets with its first excess mortality catastrophe bond transaction since 2012, seeking at least $100 million of retrocession through a Vita Capital VI Limited (Series 2015-1) issuance.

7. Enstar backing Aligned Re Ltd., hedge fund reinsurance start-up
   Enstar Group is backing a new hedge fund reinsurance style start-up named Aligned Re Ltd., which the firm will act as reinsurance manager for while also contributing $100 million of funding. The Aligned Re investment strategy is to be managed by UBS O’Connor LLC.

8. African Risk Capacity (ARC) opens parametric insurance products to organisations & NGO’s
   The African Risk Capacity (ARC) aims to double the coverage it provides to as much as $1.5 billion by 2020, by opening up its parametric insurance products to international organisations, such as United Nations agencies and non-governmental organisations (NGO’s).

9. Ban Ki-Moon, Obama in insurance pledges at Paris COP21 climate talks
   Ban Ki-Moon, the Secretary-General of the United Nations, and President Obama of the United States, both made pledges to step up the role of insurance in protecting the most vulnerable against the impacts of climate change yesterday. Subsequently, Obama pledged $30m to support the expansion of the Caribbean Catastrophe Risk Insurance Facility (CCRIF), the Pacific Catastrophic Risk Assessment and Financing Initiative (PCRAFI) and the African Risk Capacity (ARC)

10. More companies should adopt a hybrid reinsurance model: McConachie
    Market conditions see reinsurance firms struggle to generate desirable returns on the underwriting side of their balance sheets, leading Neil McConachie of Fidelis to ask why they aren’t writing less business and instead shifting capital to try to make a return on the investment side.

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 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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Artemis’ Q3 2015 Catastrophe Bond & ILS Market Report – A market making steady progress

We’ve now published our Q3 2015 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 2015, looking at the $1.093 billion of new risk capital issued and the composition of the cat bond & ILS transactions completed during Q3 2015.

Download your copy here.