Best of Artemis, week ending November 26th 2023

Here are the ten most popular news articles, week ending November 26th 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 November 26th 2023:

1. Vesttoo assets for liquidation said below $25m. Creditor focus may shift
   We’re told that the sum total of assets and so value that could be distributed in Vesttoo’s pending liquidation under the bankruptcy proceedings, is estimated to be below $25 million, which suggests creditors that lost significant value due to the reinsurance letter of credit (LOC) fraud are likely to be left unsatisfied, so may look elsewhere for potential recoveries.
2. Hard market expected through 2024, as cat losses to exceed $100bn: Swiss Re
   Global reinsurance giant Swiss Re has said that it forecasts insurance industry losses from natural catastrophe events will exceed US $100 billion again in 2023, leading it to also forecast that non-life hard market conditions will be sustained through 2024, at least.
3. Arch cancels $1.7bn of Bellemeade ILS as S&P rating change erodes capital relief
   Arch Capital Group has cancelled a number of its Bellemeade Re mortgage insurance-linked securities (ILS) arrangements with their notes set to be redeemed later this year, as the re/insurer said that rating changes enacted by S&P have substantially reduced the capital relief the ILS deals supplied.
4. Alternative reinsurance capital exchange start-up CatX raises $2.7m seed round
   CatX, a digital catastrophe and parametric risk exchange start-up, has announced a successful raise of a $2.7 million seed funding round, as it looks to ramp up its mission to connect re/insurers with efficient sources of alternative reinsurance risk capital.
5. Catastrophe bond market will set new issuance records in 2023
   Annual global catastrophe bond and related insurance-linked securities (ILS) issuance is officially on-track to breach $14 billion for the first time ever in 2023, while traditional 144A property cat bond issuance will also reach a new record high, according to Artemis’ market data.
6. Beazley seeks first nat cat bond, Fuchsia 2023-1, via Lloyd’s London Bridge 2 PCC
   Beazley is sponsoring its first ever Rule 144A property catastrophe bond, seeking $100 million or more in protection through a Fuchsia 2023-1 issuance using the Lloyd’s owned ILS structure London Bridge 2 PCC Limited.
7. Cat bonds the top Aon recommendation for property insurers at year-end
   With the fourth-quarter of the year an important time for the property insurance market, not least as the peak reinsurance renewal season approaches, broking giant Aon has made considering catastrophe bonds the top recommendation for insurers looking to navigate what can be a challenging time.
8. Hannover Re continuing to grow collateralised reinsurance fronting business
   Acting as a front or transformer for insurance-linked securities (ILS) funds and investors is an increasingly important part of global reinsurance firm Hannover Re’s business and there is evidence these activities grew further for the company in the first-half of 2023.
9. Florida Citizens shows signs of beginning to shrink
   Citizens Property Insurance Corporation, Florida’s state-backed insurance company, is now showing signs that thanks to depopulation its exposure is starting to reduce.
10. Risk repriced. Australia no longer a “good hedge” for reinsurers: ICA CEO
    Delivering a speech in Canberra last week, Andrew Hall, the Executive Director and CEO of the Insurance Council of Australia (ICA) explained that insurance and reinsurance markets are repricing risk globally and for reinsurers, writing risk in Australia is no longer seen as the diversifying hedge it used to be.

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 27 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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