Best of Artemis, week ending May 14th 2023

Here are the ten most popular news articles, week ending May 14th 2023, 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 May 14th 2023:

1. Florida carriers face “no-win situation” at June reinsurance renewal: ALIRT
   At the fast-approaching June 1st reinsurance renewals, Florida focused insurance carriers are facing a “no-win situation”, with rate increases of as much as 50% expected, according to ALIRT Insurance Research.
2. Record April issuance boosts cat bond trading, as pipeline builds
   Trading of catastrophe bond notes in the secondary market has picked up in the last few weeks as cat bond fund managers and investors look to adjust their portfolios to accommodate the brisk flow of newly issued deals, helped in part by a record over $2 billion of issuance in April 2023, by Artemis’ numbers.
3. Berkshire Hathaway property cat book “unbalanced” towards Florida: Ajit Jain
   Despite writing more business at the April renewals this year, Berkshire Hathaway’s property catastrophe reinsurance book is “very unbalanced” according to Ajit Jain, with the giant insurance and reinsurance balance-sheet still significantly exposed to Florida hurricanes.
4. Vesttoo reported raising new funds at $1.5-2bn valuation
   Vesttoo, the insurance-linked securities (ILS) focused financial technology company, is reportedly seeking to raise a Series D funding round at a valuation of between $1.5 billion and as much as $2 billion.
5. Reinsurance market momentum to continue at mid-year renewal: Swiss Re’s Lot
   The momentum seen in the reinsurance market at renewals so far in 2023 is expected to continue at the mid-point of the year, with demand expected to be high and a number of key issues likely to be discussed, from pricing and terms, to catastrophe frequency and the impacts of secondary perils, according to Swiss Re’s Gianfranco Lot.
6. RenRe to measure environmental impact of reinsurance portfolio with Moody’s
   RenaissanceRe, the Bermuda headquartered reinsurance firm with a significant third-party ILS capital management unit, is partnering with Moody’s Analytics to benchmark the environmental impact of risks within its treaty reinsurance portfolios.
7. AXIS ILS unit leader Chris Caponigro to depart firm
   Artemis has learned that Chris Caponigro, the Global Head of AXIS ILS, the third party capital unit of Bermuda-based insurer and reinsurer AXIS Capital, is to depart the company this June.
8. Florida: Exposure management by any means necessary
   Florida’s property insurance carriers face a challenging final few weeks up to their main reinsurance renewal and some insurers are taking steps to lower their exposure through the restriction of coverage, or availability of their policies, we’re told.
9. Aon Securities hires Paschal Brooks as MD with structuring & origination focus
   Aon Securities, the capital markets and investment banking arm of the insurance and reinsurance broker, has hired experienced insurance-linked securities (ILS) market executive Paschal Brooks.
10. Cat bond funds average 5.50% return year-to-date in UCITS Index
    A particularly strong performance through the month of April 2023 now sees catastrophe bond funds in the UCITS format with an average return for the first four months of the year of 5.50%, with both higher and lower-risk cat bond fund strategies faring particularly well during the period.

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 31 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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