Best of Artemis, week ending August 27th 2023

Here are the ten most popular news articles, week ending August 27th 2023, 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 or get our email alerts for every article we publish.

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Ten most read articles on Artemis.bm, week ending August 27th 2023:

1. Hurricane Idalia forecast to near Gulf coast of Florida by mid-week
   This week sees the first hurricane threat to Florida of the 2023 season, as tropical storm Idalia is forecast to steadily intensify, move into the Gulf of Mexico and approach the Gulf coast of Florida as hurricane Idalia by Wednesday.
2. Vesttoo: Our coverage of the alleged collateral issues
   The saga continues, with more news about the questions over the validity of letter of credit (LOC) reinsurance collateral security linked to Vesttoo.
3. Munich Re stretches lead at top of AM Best global reinsurer ranking
   Reinsurance giant Munich Re has stretched its lead at the top of the AM Best ranking of the world’s largest reinsurers and while there was not much change at the top of the table, there are signs some may slide down it due to a growing aversion to property catastrophe risks.
4. Fermat cat bond fund importance to GAM is clear, as cited in ownership tussle
   The importance of the Fermat Capital Management catastrophe bond funds to global asset manager GAM Investments has become abundantly clear, with disclosures related to the GAM Holding acquisition by Liontrust suggesting Fermat is responsible for as much as 21% of the assets and revenues of the firm.
5. Reinsurers to preserve discipline longer than in previous cycles: AM Best
   AM Best believes that in the current hard market cycle, reinsurance companies are likely to preserve their underwriting discipline for longer than in previous cycles, suggesting rates could hold better this time than has been seen in the past.
6. PGGM / PFZW rolls Vermeer Re income, taking reinsurer to $2bn
   Vermeer Reinsurance Ltd., the joint-venture and rated underwriting vehicle that RenaissanceRe manages on behalf of Netherlands-based pension investor PGGM and its end-client the Dutch pension PFZW, had a strong second-quarter, with almost $52.2 million of net income attributable to the backers of the company.
7. Everest has $350m of cat bond cover for hurricane Ian industry loss creep
   Everest Group has $350 million of industry loss based retrocessional protection available to it from its catastrophe bonds to cover losses related to hurricane Ian, should the current industry loss estimate creep higher.
8. Cat bonds in H1 – Records broken, capital raised, discipline evident: Swiss Re
   In the first-half of 2023, the catastrophe bond market broke a number of records, as fresh investor flows and successful capital raising by insurance-linked securities (ILS) fund managers helped make the cat bond an attractive alternative to reinsurance and an even better complement, Swiss Re has said.
9. Storm Hilary California impacts might erode some agg cat bonds: Twelve Capital
   The impact of tropical storm Hilary in California and surrounding areas of the US south west could be another event that serves to further erode some of the retention layers sitting beneath catastrophe bonds that provide aggregate reinsurance protection, investment manager Twelve Capital has cautioned.
10. Reinsurance stakes are high this wind season: Berenberg
    For the global reinsurance industry, the stakes are particularly high this wind season, as the occurrence and landfall of any hurricanes that caused significant losses could propel rates even higher, while a “super-clean” wind season could lead to softening in 2024, analysts at Berenberg have said.

This is not every article published on Artemis during the last week, just the most popular among our readers over the last seven days. There were 34 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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