Best of Artemis, week ending February 25th 2024

Here are the ten most popular news articles, week ending February 25th 2024, 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 February 25th 2024:

1. Around $20bn of catastrophe bond issuance possible, market growth could soar
   The stage is being set for what could be the most significant year of growth the catastrophe bond asset class has ever experienced, as forecasts that new issuance could approach $20 billion suggest outright cat bond market growth of more than $8 billion is possible in 2024.
2. Morocco renewed parametric quake insurance after 2023 payout of $275m
   Morocco’s government received a $275 million payout from its parametric earthquake insurance policy after the devastating earthquake that occurred in 2023 and the parametric policy has been renewed again, to provide a similar level of cover for 2024, we understand.
3. Tel Aviv court dismisses Vesttoo’s claim against co-founders & execs accused of fraud
   The Tel Aviv District Court has dismissed insurtech Vesttoo’s initial attempt to claim damages from its two ousted co-founders and the persons that worked to source investors, who were implicated in the letter of credit (LOC) fraud scheme.
4. Demand-driving collateralized opportunities, but clarity key: ILS NYC 2024
   Insurance-linked secuities (ILS) market participants are seeing a demand-driven opportunity emerge in collateralized reinsurance and retrocession, but speakers at our recent ILS NYC 2024 conference said that while investor demand for returns from these products is rising again, the clarity of coverage terms is key.
5. Extreme perception of climate change an opportunity for ILS market: Neuberger Berman
   Lauren Crane, analyst in the Insurance-Linked Strategies team at Neuberger Berman, suggests that the extreme perception of climate change may “present an opportunity rather than a threat” to the ILS market.
6. Reinsurance in focus for investors, with length of hard market key: Berenberg
   Equity analysts from investment bank Berenberg have said that, in recent meetings with investors the reinsurance sector has been a focus of their conversations, with investors particularly keen to gauge how much longer the hard reinsurance market can last.
7. Vesttoo case: Constructive trust & cell issues persist, as JPL’s object to settlements
   The joint provisional liquidators (JPL’s) to the cells of the Aon White Rock SAC vehicle that were affected by the Vesttoo letter of credit (LOC) in reinsurance fraud have objected to settlements reached between bankruptcy creditors, saying care must be taken to ensure constructive trust claims are respected and those entering into settlements do not receive preferential treatment.
8. AXA buys 25% more catastrophe reinsurance for 2024 at stable retentions
   Global insurance and reinsurance giant AXA has significantly expanded its catastrophe reinsurance protection at the January 2024 renewal season, with much more limit purchased but all of its retentions kept stable year-on-year.
9. Gallagher Specialty looks to ride wave of parametric insurance interest
   Gallagher Specialty, the broking arm of the Gallagher group that deals with large multinational clients, is another company looking to ride the current rising wave of interest and growth in parametric insurance, by establishing a centre of excellence for this kind of risk transfer.
10. Cyber cat bond investment to accelerate in 2024: Norris, Gallagher Re
    With $415 million in 144A cyber catastrophe bonds issued in the latter stages of 2023, broker Gallagher Re is expecting activity levels to continue, according to Gallagher Securities’ Head of Cyber ILS, Theo Norris.

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 29 new articles published in the last week.

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