Best of Artemis, week ending 9th November 2014

Here are the ten most popular news articles, week ending 9th November 2014, 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 9th November 2014:

1. Reinsurance market near bottom, primed for a correction: Validus CEO
   Ed Noonan, CEO of global insurance, reinsurance and ILS capital management firm Validus Holdings, said that he believes the reinsurance market is approaching the bottom, in terms of pricing, but that the market is now primed for a correction.

2. Munich Re will use alternative reinsurance capital to help it grow: CFO
   Munich Re, the world’s biggest reinsurance firm, sees an opportunity to leverage alternative reinsurance and ILS capital, from institutional investors such as pension funds, to help it grow and address high severity risks which require significant capacity.

3. Ursa Re 2014-1 catastrophe bond launches for California Earthquake Authority
   The California Earthquake Authority is returning to the catastrophe bond market with its latest issuance under a newly registered vehicle. The Ursa Re Ltd. (Series 2014-1) cat bond is targeting at least $350m of collateralized California quake reinsurance.

4. Reinsurers expense management & efficiency increasingly important
   As the reinsurance market becomes ever more competitive, as increasing amounts of third-party, lower-cost and ILS capital seek to access the market alongside excess-levels of traditional capital, expense management and all-round efficiency is growing in importance.

5. Vario Partners launched by PwC trio to grow & expand insurance securitisation
   A new firm, named Vario Partners, is launching to advise on and facilitate the bringing together of portfolios of insurance risk and the capital markets through securitisation (ILS), with three founding employees all hailing from PwC backgrounds.

6. As hedge fund reinsurance structures evolve, Everest Re may consider: CEO
   Bermuda headquartered, global reinsurance company Everest Re may consider looking at adding additional alternative and third-party capital units, such as hedge fund backed strategies, as these structures evolve and become suitable, according to its CEO.

7. Beyond price, pressure increasingly seen on reinsurance terms: PartnerRe CEO
   Pressure in the reinsurance market is increasingly moving beyond just pricing and there is now more pressure for the expansion of reinsurance coverage terms and conditions, CEO of reinsurer PartnerRe Costas Miranthis told analysts last week.

8. Aspen Capital Markets to grow ILS assets, product range in 2015: O’Kane
   Global insurance and reinsurance company Aspen  will look to increase the third-party capital under management at its Aspen Capital Markets unit and increase the range of products available to investors in 2015, according to CEO Chris O’Kane.

9. Alternative reinsurance capital now 6% of Asia catastrophe limit: Guy Carpenter
   Alternative reinsurance capital, in the form of catastrophe bonds and other collateralized reinsurance instruments, now makes up close to 6% of Asia’s catastrophe reinsurance limit, according to an estimate from reinsurance broker Guy Carpenter.

10. Buyers nearing saturation point in use of ILS in some markets: Noonan
    Reinsurance buyers use of insurance-linked securities (ILS), instruments such as catastrophe bonds and other collateralized reinsurance structures, are approaching a saturation point in mature markets such as Florida, according to Validus CEO Ed Noonan.

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 25 new stories 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.