As expected Florida’s Citizens Property Insurance is back in the catastrophe bond market with the launch of Everglades Re Ltd. (Series 2014-1), a $400m (for now) annual aggregate Florida hurricane catastrophe bond.

The catastrophe bond pipeline for Q2 2014 issuance is very strong, according to reinsurance broker Willis, which will please insurance linked investors and managers who are hoping that the strong start to the year seen in the first-quarter continues.

Assicurazioni Generali S.p.A., one of the largest insurers in Europe and the world, is sponsoring its first catastrophe bond with the launch of Lion I Re Limited, a €150m European windstorm cat bond, sources told Artemis this morning.

Both traditional and non-traditional, or alternative, reinsurance capital have been growing strongly, but in 2013 alternative capital grew by a massive 28% to end the year at a record $50 billion, according to broker Aon Benfield.

Buyers of energy insurance will benefit from increased competition and an accelerated softening of energy insurance rates at mid-year renewals, according to Marsh, as the impact of new and alternative sources of reinsurance capital spreads.

Here are the ten most popular news articles, week ending 6th April 2014, on catastrophe bonds, reinsurance capital and related risk transfer topics, from the last seven days on Artemis. To ensure you never miss a thing  subscribe to the weekly Artemis email newsletter updates.

Global reinsurance industry capital levels are set to increase once again as reinsurers are forecast to report solid underwriting profitability for the first quarter of 2014 due to a limited amount of catastrophe losses, according to Fitch Ratings.

The latest report on the global reinsurance sector from rating agency A.M. Best suggests that the market may be at an apex point, with the only way being down as the impact of recent trends including the capital markets threatens to be game-changing.