Best of Artemis, week ending 7th June 2015

Here are the ten most popular news articles, week ending 7th June 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 7th June 2015:

1. Azzurro Re I, the first Euro/Italy quake indemnity cat bond launches
   A new catastrophe bond has been launched which is set to become the first securitisation of earthquake risks in continental Europe on an indemnity basis. Azzurro Re I Limited is a €150m earthquake cat bond sponsored by Italian insurer UnipolSai Assicurazioni S.p.A.

2. PartnerRe-AXIS : $60m fees from third-party reinsurance capital by 2017
   PartnerRe and AXIS Capital said today that they expect third-party reinsurance capital management at the combined reinsurance firm, if the merger succeeds, will bring in annual fee income of $60m by 2017, while also providing capital relief.

3. June renewals show reinsurance price decline moderating: Guy Carpenter
   At the 1st June 2015 reinsurance renewals, when key U.S. and Florida property catastrophe accounts renewed, the market saw the rate of price declines moderating to average in the high single digits, according to reinsurance broker Guy Carpenter.

4. Alternative capital a “key risk” for traditional reinsurance: EIOPA
   For the traditional reinsurance market the competition from alternative sources of capital, such as third-party institutional investors and insurance-linked securities (ILS) funds, is a “key risk”, according to EIOPA.

5. PartnerRe shareholders should vote to go with AXIS: KBW analysts
   The future for reinsurance firm PartnerRe will be decided by its shareholders on the 24th July, when they are asked to vote whether the firm should merge with AXIS Capital. Analysts at KBW said yesterday that shareholders should, and likely will, vote yes.

6. China regulators agree to accelerate use of catastrophe bonds
   Two regulatory organisations in China have signed an agreement to establish a group to work on bringing the securitisation of catastrophe insurance risks to the country and to accelerate the adoption of catastrophe bonds for risk transfer needs.

7. Hannover Re transforms risks for $1 billion of catastrophe bonds
   German reinsurance firm Hannover Re has facilitated the issuance of $1 billion of catastrophe bonds in recent days, with its work as the transformer reinsurer for recent cat bonds Cranberry Re Ltd. (Series 2015-1) and Alamo Re Ltd. (Series 2015-1).

8. Niche lines, capital efficiency benefit Lloyd’s re/insurers: JP Morgan
   As headwinds continue to pressure and challenge the global insurance and reinsurance sector, JP Morgan highlights the benefits a Lloyd’s participant receives through the market’s access to niche business lines and proven capital efficiency.

9. Parity needed across cat bond & reinsurance data submissions: Ben Brookes, RMS
   Investors in the insurance-linked securities (ILS) and catastrophe bond markets deserve to have equal levels of data transparency in transaction submissions, to enable allocation decisions to be made on a level playing field, according to Ben Brookes of RMS.

10. Concern over re/insurance terms relaxation in London market: A.M. Best
    Rating agency A.M. Best says that it is concerned that relaxation of insurance and reinsurance contract terms and conditions in the London market could adversely affect results in coming years and that it is monitoring how companies deal with increased exposures.

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 30 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’ Q1 2015 Catastrophe Bond & ILS Market Report – The biggest first quarter ever

We’ve now published our Q1 2015 catastrophe bond & ILS market report.

This report reviews the catastrophe bond and insurance-linked securities (ILS) market at the end of the first-quarter of 2015, looking at the new risk capital issued and the composition of the cat bond & ILS transactions completed during Q1 2015.

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