Catastrophe bonds and insurance-linked securities news

AlphaCat Managers, Ltd., the third-party reinsurance capital management unit of Validus Holdings Ltd., has seen its insurance linked assets under management increase to $2.7 billion at January 1st 2017, up 8% in a year.

The secondary trading market for catastrophe bonds was particularly active in December 2016, with almost double the amount of bond titles trading during the month compared to the prior month, as ILS funds and investors balanced portfolios in advance of the reinsurance renewal.

Strong investor and sponsor appetite in 2016 helped global catastrophe bond issuance surpass $7 billion for the fourth year running, taking cumulative issuance since the market began to more than $80 billion, according to the Artemis Deal Directory.

Tom Johansmeyer, Assistant Vice President, PCS Strategy & Development at ISO, launched the Verisk Insurance Solutions reinsurance initiative, and works closely with global reinsurance and capital markets stakeholders worldwide to identify critical needs and collaborate on solutions to address them.

The volume of insurance-linked listings of catastrophe bonds, insurance-linked securities (ILS), reinsurance sidecar notes and insurance linked investment funds on the Bermuda Stock Exchange (BSX) reached a new high at the end of 2016, exceeding $20 billion for the first time.

A new private catastrophe bond, or cat bond lite, issuance has been completed and listed in Bermuda using the Artex SAC Limited Note Program II, in the form of $50.227 million of Artex SAC Limited – Series DX Notes.

In this interview with Artemis Bill Dubinsky, Managing Director & Head of Insurance-linked securities (ILS) at Willis Capital Markets & Advisory (WCMA), described the benefits and challenges of illiquid and liquid ILS investments, citing trends witnessed in 2016 and what this might mean for the market in 2017.

In a recent interview with Artemis, Niklaus Hilti, Head of Credit Suisse’s insurance-linked securities (ILS) division suggests a continuation of the shift towards collateralised reinsurance placements, and expects cat bond issuance to remain at current levels in the year ahead.

Health insurance giant Aetna has returned to the insurance-linked securities (ILS) market for its eighth Vitality Re transaction, launching a Vitality Re VIII Ltd. (Series 2017-1) deal that seeks $200 million of reinsurance cover against a deterioration of its medical benefit ratio.

In a recent interview Artemis spoke with Darren Redhead, Chief Executive Officer (CEO) and Mathieu Marsan, Senior Portfolio Manager & Actuary, at third-party capital and reinsurance-linked asset manager Kinesis Capital Management.