Best of Artemis, week ending August 9th 2026

Here are the ten most popular news articles, week ending August 9th 2026, 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.


Ten most read articles on Artemis.bm, week ending August 9th 2026:

1. Zurich secures $1bn data centre quota share, breaks out US peak peril reinsurance tower
   Zurich has secured a significant $1 billion quota share reinsurance arrangement to support its growing business in underwriting data centre risks, while it has also broken out its US peak peril catastrophe reinsurance tower in its disclosures, now showing its recent catastrophe bond.
2. $100bn event may not be enough to cause a hard market, say Berenberg analysts
   As the reinsurance industry has transitioned into a softening market phase, analysts at Berenberg have indicated that a single $100 billion catastrophe event is unlikely to revert the industry back to a hard market cycle.
3. Wildfire exposed catastrophe bond issuance soars to $5.183bn year-to-date in 2026
   The catastrophe bond market continues to demonstrate increased comfort with the wildfire peril in 2026, with the amount of risk capital deployed to support cat bonds that have some exposure to wildfire having soared to $5.183 billion year-to-date, already nearing the full-year record of $5.55 billion for the peril seen in 2025.
4. Talcott launches West Grove Re life and annuity sidecar with $1bn capital raise
   Talcott Financial Group (Talcott) has announced the launch of West Grove Re Ltd., a Bermuda based reinsurance sidecar structure that has been capitalised with approximately $1 billion after a fund-raise in partnership with Goldman Sachs.
5. Spokane, Washington wildfires could become a billion-dollar insured loss event
   AM Best and Gallagher Re have suggested that the areas in and around Spokane, Washington will suffer considerable insured losses from the ongoing wildfires, with Gallagher Re indicating that it has the potential to be a billion-dollar insured loss event, and could become the costliest insured wildfire event in Washington’s history.
6. Aon promotes Murray to Global Chief Commercial Officer, Captive & Insurance Management
   Aon has promoted long-standing Bermuda based employee Choisel Murray to a senior position as Global Chief Commercial Officer within the Aon Captive & Insurance Management business.
7. Lockton Re executes ILW covering property cat and cyber risks in a single limit
   Lockton Re has successfully executed what the firm believes is the first industry-loss warranty (ILW) that combines property catastrophe and cyber risk triggers within a single limit structure for a protection buying client.
8. Swiss Re reports challenging reinsurance renewals, but broadly stable T&Cs
   Swiss Re reported that the reinsurance renewal environment is challenging but said it is remaining disciplined. While premiums declined in natural catastrophe underwriting due to falling prices, the company cited broadly stable terms and conditions.
9. CSU maintains well below-normal hurricane forecast. Landfall probabilities down as season progresses
   The Colorado State University (CSU) tropical meteorology team has stuck with its forecast of well-below normal activity levels for the 2026 Atlantic hurricane season, while its landfall probability metrics have declined somewhat as the season progresses.
10. Twelve Securis combining cat bond and private ILS management teams, as Schwartz to depart
    Twelve Securis is combining its catastrophe bond and private ILS focused investment teams, to consolidate and optimise its approach to managing dedicated strategies and blended portfolios, while at the same time the firm also stated that long-standing senior employee Etienne Schwartz is departing the firm.

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 32 new articles published in the last week.

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