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Investor pressure to stimulate catastrophe re/insurance demand

artemisORIGINAL PUBLICATION HERE

Large corporations are under increasing pressure to disclose and ultimately financially protect themselves against weather, climate and natural disaster risks, the result of which will be a growing demand for insurance, reinsurance and risk transfer.

Artemis first wrote about the call to get corporations to take responsibility for their disaster and weather risks fives years ago. But in the last couple of years the pressure is mounting, with the United Nations and other global organisations now pushing for international accounting standards to include a level of disclosure.

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‘Enormous potential’ for the capital markets in reinsurance: SIFMA exec

artemisORIGINAL PUBLICATION HERE

At the SIFMA Insurance and Risk Linked Securities (IRLS) 2015 conference held in New York today, executive vice president of business policies and practices at SIFMA, Randy Snook, said that there is “enormous potential” for the capital markets to grow in reinsurance and ILS.

Snook said that there is “much to be positive about” and that the roughly 20-year-old ILS market, where the capital markets have increasingly become a mainstay of global reinsurance capacity, has room for growth.

“There is enormous potential for capital markets to bring additional capital and solutions to cover a more diverse set of risks and perils,” Snook explained.

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Liquid alternative allocations to grow, cat bonds & ILS will benefit

artemisORIGINAL PUBLICATION HERE

Institutional investors are set to increase their allocations to investment strategies which fall into the ‘liquid alternatives’ classification, which typically means a UCITS or 40 Act strategy investment fund, neatly fitting the mold of some catastrophe bond and ILS funds.

Liquid alternatives have been becoming increasingly popular for some investors that struggle with the typically more illiquid alternative asset classes. The guaranteed liquidity of a UCITS or 40 Act strategy enables large pension funds and other investors that require guaranteed liquidity availability to access alternative asset classes that they otherwise might not have been able to.

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2015 business plan unveiled at BMA briefing

Bermuda Re logoORIGINAL PUBLICATION HERE

The Bermuda Monetary Authority revealed its 2015 plans at an executive briefing held recently at the Fairmont Hamilton.

Hinting at an expansion of its role, the authority invited other organisations important to the health of Bermuda’s financial services sector to participate in a discussion about Bermuda’s economic future.

In his keynote address, Jeremy Cox, the authority’s chief executive officer said: “In 2015, you’ll see the authority becoming more closely identified with the Bermuda team. This will mean working alongside the Bermuda Business Development Agency (BDA), the Finance Ministry and the Economic Development Ministry.

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Bermuda Convergence To Be Held In November

bernewsORIGINAL PUBLICATION HERE

Bermuda Convergence 2015 will be held November 11 -13, in Hamilton, Bermuda ILS Bermuda Ltd. announced today [Mar 3].

Last November, the Bermuda Convergence 2014 event was hailed a major success, drawing more than 300 delegates from 13 different countries around the world including Canada, Cayman Islands, Finland, France, Germany, Hong Kong, Ireland, Switzerland, South Africa, Australia and the USA.

Swedish ILS fund manager Entropics starts buying catastrophe bonds

ORIGINAL PUBLICATION HERE

Entropics Asset Management AB, the first insurance-linked securities (ILS) and catastrophe bond fund manager located in Scandinavia, has begun deploying its first capital raised into catastrophe bonds, as it seeks to build its portfolio.

It’s not often that you get to follow the start-up of a new catastrophe bond or ILS fund, but Entropics have been very transparent while preparing to launch. Now, having recently raised its first third-party capital with over £8m of investment from Movestic, part of the Chesnara Group, the ILS manager is beginning to put that capital to work.

Entropics has been active in the cat bond market over the last two weeks since raising the first capital, buying positions in bonds that provide the return profile the manager is looking to acquire for its SEF Entropics Cat Bond Fund.

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Re/insurance. The engine of Berkshire Hathaway: Warren Buffett

artemisORIGINAL PUBLICATION HERE

Warren Buffett’s much-anticipated 50th anniversary letter to Berkshire Hathaway investors was published on Saturday and the ‘Sage of Omaha’ explained that insurance and reinsurance has been “the engine” that propelled the firm’s expansion.

Buffett’s was the first to truly discover the value of insurance premium float, by building huge pools of capital that he could put to work across his diversified investment focused business. As such he is the inspiration of many of the hedge fund strategy reinsurers, and the envy of many traditional insurers and reinsurers.