Best of Artemis, week ending January 7th 2024

Here are the ten most popular news articles, week ending January 7th 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.

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Ten most read articles on Artemis.bm, week ending January 7th 2024:

1. Direct losses from Japan quake unlikely, but damage widespread: Twelve Capital
   Catastrophe bond and insurance-linked securities (ILS) investment manager Twelve Capital has said in an update that it does not currently anticipate any direct losses due to the major earthquake in Japan to any positions it holds.
2. An unprecedented year of new risks, records, and huge cat bond market growth: Report
   The catastrophe bond and related insurance-linked securities (ILS) market saw activity levels accelerate right the way through the busiest fourth-quarter in its history, resulting in a record year of issuance and market growth, Artemis’ new quarterly market report explains.
3. Stone Ridge made well over $1bn in reinsurance trading profits in 2023: CEO Stevens
   Stone Ridge Asset Management made well over $1 billion in reinsurance trading profits over the course of 2023, with record returns delivered to investors by both of its mutual insurance-linked securities (ILS) fund strategies, according to CEO Ross Stevens.
4. Cat bond manager Icosa Investments launched by Steiger & Nickerson
   Icosa Investments has been launched as new catastrophe bond focused asset manager, by co-founders the former Twelve Capital executive Florian Steiger and Swiss financial services and capital markets specialist Jordan Nickerson, Artemis has learned.
5. Japan M7.5 earthquake insured loss to reach $6.4 billion: KCC
   Insurance industry losses from the January 1st magnitude 7.5 earthquake that struck the Noto peninsula on Japan’s west coast could reach $6.4 billion, with residential property seen as the major contributor, according to risk modelling firm Karen Clark & Company (KCC).
6. Aon given more time to respond to Clear Blue lawsuit over Vesttoo LOCs
   Aon has been given an extended time-frame to respond to the complaint filed against it in the New York Supreme Court by fronting specialist Clear Blue Insurance, in relation to the reinsurance letter of credit (LOC) fraud perpetrated by insurtech Vesttoo.
7. Swiss Re cat bond index hits record 19.69% total-return for 2023
   The total-return of the outstanding catastrophe bond market in 2023 reached a record level of 19.69%, according to full-year data from the Swiss Re Cat Bond Performance Indices.
8. Demand to increase for lower-layer catastrophe covers: Goldman Sachs
   With attachment points still higher across the global reinsurance and retrocession markets, the effect of retaining more risk on balance-sheet is anticipated to drive an upwelling of demand for lower-layer catastrophe covers, according to analysts at Goldman Sachs.
9. Loss hit US property reinsurance rates rise up to 50% at renewal: Gallagher Re
   While the lack of significant US wind loss events in 2023 has helped to moderate the outcome for many property catastrophe reinsurance renewals at 1/1, US reinsurance towers that had seen losses over the course of the year have experienced rate-on-line increases of up to 50%, broker Gallagher Re said.
10. Gallatin Point targets cat risk with $1.25bn investment in AmFAM reciprocal TRUE
    Investor Gallatin Point Capital is making a US $1.25 billion investment into the American Family Insurance Group owned reciprocal insurer Trusted Resource Underwriters Exchange (TRUE), with a target to write catastrophe exposed property insurance in Florida and beyond.

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 36 new articles published in the last week.

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