Best of Artemis, week ending January 18th 2026

Here are the ten most popular news articles, week ending January 18th 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 January 18th 2026:

1. Integral ILS sponsoring first cat bond, seeks $200m named storm retro with Windrose Re
   Integral ILS Ltd., an independent alternative investment manager focused on natural catastrophe insurance and reinsurance investments, has entered the catastrophe bond market seeking $200 million in US named storm retrocession from a Windrose Re Ltd. (Series 2026-1) issuance.
2. GC Securities execs see sidecars as big focus for 2026. Flag aggregate capacity challenges
   As the reinsurance sidecar market keeps growing, GC Securities is placing significant emphasis on this sector as a major focus for 2026, while the firm also sees a need for greater attention on helping clients secure aggregate capacity for secondary perils, executives from the firm told Artemis in a recent interview.
3. Swiss Re Global Cat Bond Performance Index returns 11.40% for 2025
   The catastrophe bond market experienced its third consecutive year of double-digit returns in 2025, with perhaps the most widely used benchmark, the Swiss Re Global Cat Bond Performance Index, delivering a total return of 11.40% for the period.
4. Calidris announces leadership hires after closing inaugural sidecar transaction
   Following the recent closure of its inaugural reinsurance sidecar transaction with QBE Re, Calidris Investment Partners has announced key leadership hires, with Marcus Foley joining the firm as Director of Quantitative Strategies, and Natasha Osborne as Director of Finance and Operations.
5. Swiss Re redeems Matterhorn mortality cat bond early, to return $46.9m principal to investors
   Swiss Re has made an early redemption of the loss exposed Class A notes from its Matterhorn Re Ltd. (Series 2020-2) catastrophe bond issuance after benefiting from roughly $33.1 million in recoveries under their retrocessional protection, leaving the remaining $46.9 million of principal set to be returned to investors.
6. Gallagher Re hires Guy Carpenter’s Tokmen as Head of Structured, UK Capital Solutions
   Reinsurance broker Gallagher Re has made a key appointment who brings new capital markets experience, hiring Efe Tokmen from broker Guy Carpenter as Head of Structured, UK Capital Solutions.
7. Nephila Capital hires Junior Underwriter De Souza from Pillar in Bermuda
   Nephila Capital, the specialist insurance-linked securities and catastrophe reinsurance investment manager, has added a new Junior Underwriter in Bermuda, hiring Max De Souza from his most recent role as a modeller at Pillar Capital.
8. Swiss Re and GAM committed to expanding opportunities in ILS
   With the insurance-linked securities (ILS) space continuing to gain significant momentum, reinsurance giant Swiss Re and GAM Investments have affirmed their commitment to continue developing new products and identifying opportunities within the ILS market.
9. Innovating hedging and risk transfer with forecast contracts: Patrick Brown, Interactive Brokers
   Following the launch of Interactive Brokers’ ForecastEx platform, which allows investors to buy ‘yes’ or ‘no’ contracts based on stated outcomes for specific indicators, Artemis spoke to Patrick Brown, Head of Climate Analytics at the firm, about how these contracts allow investors to access risk-linked returns, as well as some of the key advantages they bring towards the industry.
10. Retrocession renews “very late”. Capacity pressures rates, frequency covers return: Gallagher Re
    The retrocession renewals for January 1st 2026 were finalised much later than usual. But, with ample capacity available from traditional and ILS markets, buyers achieved price reductions and also re-introduced more frequency protection to their coverage, according to Gallagher Re.

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.

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