Best of Artemis, week ending 8th March 2015

Here are the ten most popular news articles, week ending 8th March 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 8th March 2015:

1. Re/insurance. The engine of Berkshire Hathaway: Warren Buffett
   Warren Buffett’s much-anticipated 50th anniversary letter to Berkshire Hathaway investors was published on Saturday and the ‘Sage of Omaha’ explained that insurance and reinsurance has been “the engine” that propelled the firm’s expansion.

2. Parametric triggers can ensure business interruption recovery: Marsh
   Businesses looking to protect themselves from property damage or business interruption due to natural disasters or weather events should look to alternative risk transfer structures and parametric triggers to ensure a recovery can be made, according to Marsh.

3. Distinction between ILS & reinsurance to keep blurring
   The lines between insurance-linked securities (ILS) and capital markets backed sources of reinsurance cover and the traditional market are set to continue blurring, however some features of the ILS product remain differentiators, speakers at the SIFMA event said yesterday.

4. Managing reinsurance & ILS collateral pools in a challenging environment
   With the growth of the collateralized reinsurance and insurance-linked securities (ILS) market continuing apace, at a time when broader financial markets and the investment environment can be challenging, it is vital to consider how collateral pools for ILS transactions are managed and allocated.

5. ‘Enormous potential’ for the capital markets in reinsurance: SIFMA exec
   At the SIFMA Insurance and Risk Linked Securities (IRLS) 2015 conference held in New York today, executive vice president of business policies and practices at SIFMA, Randy Snook, said that there is “enormous potential” for the capital markets to grow in reinsurance and ILS.

6. Investor pressure to stimulate catastrophe re/insurance demand
   Large corporations are under increasing pressure to disclose and ultimately financially protect themselves against weather, climate and natural disaster risks, the result of which will be a growing demand for insurance, reinsurance and risk transfer.

7. Sequant Re hires for capital raising, plus adds underwriting relationship
   Sequant Re, the recently launched Bermuda-based insurance-linked securities (ILS) and collateralized reinsurance company which aims to lower barriers to entry into the market for investors, has announced a senior hire and a relationship with an underwriting consultancy today.

8. One of the first reinsurance sidecars, Olympus Re, to be wound up
   The Olympus Re reinsurance quota share sidecar vehicle is being wound up, a report says. The third-party capital backed collateralized reinsurance vehicle faced serious losses from the 2004/2005 hurricane season and never fully recovered.

9. Hedge fund backed Sandell Re joins Multi-Strat Re platform
   Sandell Asset Management Corporation has become the latest hedge fund manager to join the Multi-Strat Re platform, as the investment oriented reinsurance strategy continues to gain appeal among the asset managers of the world.

10. ILS Fund Services Ltd. passes $3 billion of client assets administered
    ILS Fund Services Ltd. (ILS), the Bermuda licensed specialist in hedge fund administration and valuation services for insurance-linked securities (ILS) funds, has grown its assets under administration to $3 billion, with services provided to 27 ILS funds.

Also, make sure you read our predictions articles, featuring leading players from the ILS, cat bond and reinsurance world.

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 26 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’ Q4 2014 Catastrophe Bond & ILS Market Report – A busy finish to a record year for ILS

We’ve now published our Q4 2014 catastrophe bond & ILS market report.

This report reviews the catastrophe bond and insurance-linked securities (ILS) market at the end of the fourth-quarter of 2014, looking at the new risk capital issued and the composition of the cat bond & ILS transactions completed during Q4 2014. It also includes a brief review of the full-year 2014’s record issuance.

Download your copy here.