Best of Artemis, week ending February 6th 2022

Here are the ten most popular news articles, week ending February 6th 2022, 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 6th 2022:

1. Descartes raises $120m Series B, plans for parametric growth
   Descartes Underwriting, the insurance technology (insurtech) focused managing general agency (MGA) that specialises in parametric and data-driven risk transfer products, is planning for further growth, having successfully secured a huge vote of confidence by raising a $120 million Series B round.
2. ILS margin expansion & growth opportunities in a firming reinsurance market
   One of the themes coming out of this results season, as re/insurers announce their fourth-quarter and full-year 2021 earnings, is a growing confidence in the ability to expand margins and secure further growth, in a firming reinsurance marketplace.
3. Markel has full-confidence in Nephila: Co-CEO Whitt
   Markel Corporation has full-confidence in the ability of its insurance-linked securities (ILS) specialist manager Nephila Capital to deliver results over the long-term and looks forward to realising more synergies with the ILS operation, according to Co-CEO Richie Whitt.
4. Cat bond modeller AIR Worldwide to rebrand under parent Verisk
   Well-known catastrophe risk modelling firm AIR Worldwide, which remains the most prolific when it comes to providing risk modelling services to the catastrophe bond market, is being rebranded to fall under the name of its parent Verisk, where it will be known for its “extreme event solutions”.
5. Florida Citizens staff call on Board to publicly support risk transfer
   The staff of Florida’s Citizens Property Insurance Corporation have published a white paper calling on the Board of the insurer of last resort to publicly support a plan to procure risk transfer, through reinsurance and catastrophe bonds, for 2022.
6. Integral ILS gets new commitments from PSP & New Holland, reaches $1.4bn
   Integral ILS Ltd., the insurance-linked securities (ILS) investment fund manager launched by well-known industry executives Richard Lowther and Lixin Zeng, has taken its assets under management higher with recent fundraising, lifting investor commitments to just over $1.4 billion and capital deployed to $1.1 billion.
7. FEMA targets $325m fifth FloodSmart Re NFIP catastrophe bond
   The U.S. Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) is back in the catastrophe bond market again, seeking to secure at least $325 million of additional reinsurance protection for its National Flood Insurance Program (NFIP) through a FloodSmart Re Ltd. (Series 2022-1)  issuance, which will be FEMA’s fifth cat bond.
8. Lowering Florida Hurricane Cat Fund attachment faces opposition
   Proposals to lower the aggregate retention point of the Florida Hurricane Catastrophe Fund (FHCF) are facing opposition, as concerns are raised over the condition that a major hurricane loss event would leave the Fund in, if it exhausted earlier.
9. Hannover Re shrinks K-Cessions sidecar & retro at “challenging” renewal
   Hannover Re faced more challenging market conditions when placing the renewal of its retrocession program at 1/1, resulting in a shrinking of protection, with its capital markets backed K-Cessions quota share sidecar facility declining 26% to around $450 million.
10. Redefinition of “secondary perils” may be needed: Gallagher Re’s Vickers
    After another catastrophe loss year where the insurance and reinsurance industry has experienced a significant burden from so-called secondary perils, James Vickers, Chairman International, Reinsurance at Gallagher Re has called for a “redefinition” to be considered.

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 30 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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