The successful issuance of the first full cyber catastrophe bonds in late 2023 was a watershed moment and the role of risk models in helping insurance-linked securities investors get up to speed on what is still a relatively new peril to the ILS sector was key, executives at Moody's RMS told us in an Artemis Live interview. To find out more about the role of risk models in getting the first cyber cat bonds to market successfully, we spoke with Moody's RMS executives Damini Mago - Senior Product Manager, Cyber and Alice Woolley – Lead Consultant, Risk Advisory, recently. With now four full 144A cyber catastrophe bonds successfully brought to market, the role of risk models has been critical in helping cedents to access an important new source of reinsurance capital and for investors to understand the exposures they were being presented with. Moody's RMS Senior Product Manager, Cyber, Damini Mago said that, "2023 saw the first cyber catastrophe bonds come to the market. It was a watershed moment bringing this to the ILS market and as by the end of quarter four, we saw for 144A cat bond transactions, securing about $415 million in protection for those sponsors. "We feel it's the first big step to open the doors for that additional capacity that the market clearly needs, especially with the premium growth that's expected from it. "We view this as a pivotal step in establishing cyber as a viable asset class for investors, contributing to the advancement of the cyber insurance market. So, it's definitely an exciting time." Helping investors to gain an understanding of the peril category that is cyber and precisely what risks these cyber cat bonds cover, was a key part of the process towards opening the ILS market up for cyber cedents. Alice Woolley, Lead Consultant, Risk Advisory at Moody's RMS explained, "It is really encouraging to see how ILS investors stepped up. They're getting to grips with this new challenge, this completely new peril, and they're supporting not just one but multiple transactions. "So, we've seen really encouraging signs and education has been a really key focus and a key part of this long journey of getting to where we are, with the cyber transactions so far." During the interview, Mago and Woolley also discussed the Moody's RMS cyber risk model and what it covers, as well as how it was applied to the cat bond issues we've seen so far. The importance of robust cyber loss event definitions was also explored and the pair also commented on the range of cyber cat bond structures that the market has seen thus far, as well as their hopes for a vibrant cyber cat bond market going forwards. Listen to the full podcast episode for more insights into the exciting new world of cyber catastrophe bonds with Moody’s RMS’ Damini Mago and Alice Woolley.

This was the sixth session of the day at our Artemis London 2023 insurance-linked securities (ILS) market conference, held on September 5th in London, UK. Around 240 attendees enjoyed a busy day of thoughtful catastrophe bond and insurance-linked securities (ILS) focused discussion from industry experts, as well as valuable networking opportunities. This session features an expert panel discussing parametric triggers in insurance-linked securities (ILS) and the future potential for parametric triggers in developing capital market backed responses to growing climate risk exposures. The panel discussion was moderated by: Rowan Douglas, CEO Climate Risk and Resilience, Howden Group. He was joined on stage by: Stephen Lathrope, Global Head of Insurance, ICEYE; Michael Bennett, Head of Derivatives & Structured Finance, the World Bank Treasury; and Edern Le Roux, Head of ILS and Cat Modeling, Descartes Underwriting. The panellists discussed how parametric triggers have helped insurance and catastrophe bond protection expand to some underserved areas. We heard of the need for greater collaboration between private and public entities, as well as the growing demand for disaster insurance protection for governments and their entities. The panellists also discussed the important role of technology in the creation of parametric triggers and how this can help drive innovation and triggers that are increasingly closely calibrated to the underlying risks that insurance and reinsurance products are protecting against. Listen to the full podcast episode to learn more about the future of parametric triggers in the insurance-linked securities (ILS) market.

This was the fifth session of the day at our Artemis London 2023 insurance-linked securities (ILS) market conference, held on September 5th in London, UK. Around 240 attendees enjoyed a busy day of thoughtful catastrophe bond and insurance-linked securities (ILS) focused discussion from industry experts, as well as valuable networking opportunities. This session features a keynote speech and Q&A with Jorge Familiar, Vice President and Treasurer, of the World Bank Group. Familiar discussed the World Bank's role in disaster risk financing and use of insurance-linked securities (ILS) such as catastrophe bonds. He explained that the World Bank's clients have benefited from significant risk transfer thanks to the cat bond structure over the years, saying that interest in insurance protection and leveraging capital market investor appetite to fund that, remains strong. Familiar also discussed the role of ILS and cat bonds at the World Bank. "We are focusing on increasing our financial capabilities and taking full-advantage of what we do in financial markets to further our mission," he explained. Adding, "This leads to insurance-linked securities (ILS)." Familiar further said that the World Bank is aware that countries need help to build resilience on the one hand, but also to build robust safety nets with different layers that will allow them to deal with natural disasters with different intensities and different probabilities of occurrence. "Hence, there is clearly a space for cat bonds here," Jorge Familiar told the audience. Listen to the full podcast episode to learn more about the World Bank Group's activities in the catastrophe bond and insurance-linked securities (ILS) market.

This was the fourth session of the day at our Artemis London 2023 insurance-linked securities (ILS) market conference, held on September 5th in London, UK. Around 240 attendees enjoyed a busy day of thoughtful catastrophe bond and insurance-linked securities (ILS) focused discussion from industry experts, as well as valuable networking opportunities. This session features an expert panel discussing the need to sustain returns, across both catastrophe bonds and private ILS such as collateralized reinsurance, and ideas as to how that can be achieved. The panel discussion was moderated by: Philipp Kusche, Global Head of ILS, Howden Tiger Capital Markets & Advisory. He was joined on stage by: Florian Steiger, Head of Cat Bonds, Twelve Capital; Hervé Castella, Chief Third Party Capital Officer, SCOR; Marco della Giacoma, Portfolio Manager, Tenax Capital; and Michael Rich, Head ILS, Commodities & Environmental Strategies, K2 Advisors. The panellists spoke about the evident diversification benefits that allocations to ILS have exhibited for investors over the last few years, saying that the lack of correlation remains a key driver for investor capital inflows to the sector. They also explored how investor sentiment is evolving in the catastrophe bond space, as well as more broadly for investments into private ILS such as collateralized reinsurance arrangements. Listen to the full podcast episode to learn more about the return potential of investment allocations to the insurance-linked securities (ILS) market.

This was the third session of the day at our Artemis London 2023 insurance-linked securities (ILS) market conference, held on September 5th in London, UK. Around 240 attendees enjoyed a busy day of thoughtful catastrophe bond and insurance-linked securities (ILS) focused discussion from industry experts, as well as valuable networking opportunities. This session features a timely panel discussion focused on cyber catastrophe bond market developments, featuring some of those involved in some of the first wave of cyber cat bonds that launched soon after this event. The panel discussion was moderated by: Kyle Freeman, Head of ILS Structuring, Property, AXIS ILS. He was joined on stage by: Joe Gottlieb, Partner, Insurance Practice, Sidley Austin LLP; Rebecca Bole, Head of Industry Engagement, CyberCube; Richard Pennay, CEO of Insurance-Linked Securities, Aon Securities; and Benjamin Baltesar, Head of Underwriting and Pricing, Credit Suisse Insurance Linked Strategies. The group explored the readiness of the market for cyber catastrophe bond, discussing the response of investors to the prospect of cyber cat bonds getting issued, and speaking to some of the challenges faced in getting investors comfortable with cyber risks in ILS form. Event definitions were a focus, as this has been one of the key considerations for sponsors and their service providers, to ensure coverage is robust from a cyber cat bond. The investor side was also discussed and the group agreed that, in cyber risk, event definitions are critical so that ILS investors understand what losses could qualify and they could be exposed to, if they invested in a cyber cat bond. The group also said that the ILS market is ready for cyber and that investors have approached this in a pragmatic manner, with the initial cyber cat bonds ready to provide a good test for investor appetite and lay the groundwork for what could be an important new peril for the catastrophe bond market. Listen to the full podcast episode to learn more about the nascent market for cyber catastrophe bonds.

This was the second session of the day at our Artemis London 2023 insurance-linked securities (ILS) market conference, held on September 5th in London, UK. Around 240 attendees enjoyed a busy day of thoughtful catastrophe bond and insurance-linked securities (ILS) focused discussion from industry experts, as well as valuable networking opportunities. This session features an insightful panel discussion focused on developments in third-party investor sentiment for allocating to the insurance-linked securities (ILS) and catastrophe bonds asset class. The panel discussion was moderated by: Lorenzo Volpi, Managing Partner / Deputy CEO, Leadenhall Capital Partners LLP. He was joined on stage by: Chantal Berendsen, Hedge Fund IDD Senior Analyst, Insurance Specialist, Albourne Partners; Martin Dietz, Head of Diversified Strategies, LGIM; and Raffaele Dell'Amore, Head ILS Centre of Competence, Partner, SIGLO Capital Advisors AG. The group explored the evolution of ILS investor sentiment over the last year and where it might be headed. They identified ongoing challenges and the need for investor concerns to be addressed, but also a steadily improving environment for ILS investor sentiment, helped by the improvements in returns available from the market, as well as the evidence of ILS portfolio enhancements that are starting to show through. Listen to this full podcast episode to learn more about the state of investor sentiment for allocating to the insurance-linked securities (ILS) market.

This was the first session of the day at our Artemis London 2023 insurance-linked securities (ILS) market conference, held on September 5th in London, UK.  More than 240 attendees enjoyed a busy day of thoughtful catastrophe bond and insurance-linked securities (ILS) focused discussion from industry experts, as well as valuable networking opportunities.  This session features a keynote speech and Q&A with Burkhard Keese, the CFO of the Lloyd's insurance and reinsurance market.  Keese discussed Lloyd's progress with its activities of relevance to the ILS investor community.  In particular, he shared an update on the London Bridge 2 PCC ILS structure and said that he expects more activity through the platform over the coming months, as Lloyd's market participants look to access efficient sources of capital and reinsurance.  Listen to the full episode for more insights about the Lloyd's market and its interaction with the insurance-linked securities (ILS) community from Burkhard Keese.

This panel discussion took place at the Artemis ILS Asia 2023 conference in Singapore on July 13th. This was the final session of the day and saw three experienced insurance-linked securities (ILS) investment managers take to the stage, moderated by Steve Evans, Artemis' Owner and Editor. The panellists taking part were: John DeCaro, Founding Principal, Elementum Advisors, LLC; Peter DiFiore, Managing Director, Neuberger Berman; and Stephan Ruoff, Head of ILS, Schroders Capital. The panel session discussed the current state of the catastrophe bond and ILS market from the vantage point of experienced asset managers focused on this marketplace. The group explored what the current attractions are for investors to look at the ILS asset class, particularly those in the Asia Pacific region. In addition, a discussion was had as to how further institutionalisation of the ILS asset class could help it to deliver on its growth potential. Pricing in catastrophe bonds was also discussed, with panellists opining on the softening of prices that has been seen through recent weeks. Overall, investor appetite for ILS is viewed as increasing, but with the market still needing to prove out the improvements to the product and underwriting or structural changes that have been made, as well as to deliver the reinsurance-linked returns investors are expecting. Listen to this full episode to learn more about the state of the cat bond and ILS market from the viewpoint of experienced ILS asset management experts.

This panel discussion took place at the Artemis ILS Asia 2023 conference in Singapore on July 13th. This session discussed the role of catastrophe bonds and trends in public sector and sovereign risk transfer, under the watch of moderator Alex Pui, Executive Manager, Commonwealth Bank of Australia. The panellists taking part were: Scott McHardy, Head of Risk Finance, Toka Tū Ake EQC; Esther Kim, Senior Product Manager, Public Sector Solutions, Swiss Re; Michael Bennett, Head of Derivatives & Structured Finance, World Bank Treasury. The panel session discussed the use of catastrophe bonds in public sector and sovereign risk transfer and the potential for that to increase, with specific relevance to the Asia Pacific region. The group discussed specific use-cases for cat bonds in public and sovereign risk transfer. They also explored the broader potential for use of insurance-linked securities (ILS) capacity within these risk transfer arrangements With a catastrophe bond sponsor on the panel, as well as the World Bank, there was a robust discussion on the benefits of cat bond protection and of bringing the capital markets into catastrophe insurance and reinsurance programmes. Listen to the full podcast episode to learn more about the use of catastrophe bonds within public sector and sovereign risk transfer programmes.

This keynote speech took place at the Artemis ILS Asia 2023 conference in Singapore on July 13th. This session featured Yusuke Kikuchi, Managing Director at Aon Securities (Japan), the catastrophe bond, insurance-linked securities (ILS) and capital markets division of the global insurance and reinsurance broker. Kikuchi discussed the rapid economic growth potential of the Asia Pacific region, going on to highlight the magnitude of catastrophe losses that occur there and the resultant and still growing insurance protection gap. He went on to run through a timeline of catastrophe bond issuance in the region, highlighting key transactions and sponsors, as well as the handful of reinsurance sidecar deals that have been completed in APAC. Importantly, he noted the convergence of pricing between traditional reinsurance and ILS rates, which is helping to make the cat bond and ILS product range more appealing to sponsors. Going on to explain that there is still outsized demand from ILS investors for access to APAC risks, which means any Asia Pacific focused cat bonds and ILS would likely be well-received, while also saying that demand for ILS investments from allocators in Asia Pacific also remains high and further flows to the asset class from the region should be expected. Listen to the full podcast episode to learn more about catastrophe bond and ILS market activity in Asia Pacific and the opportunity to grow the cat bond market in the region.

This panel discussion took place at the Artemis ILS Asia 2023 conference in Singapore on July 13th.  This session was moderated by Steve Tunstall, Director, PARIMA.org. The panellists taking part were: Kelvin Wu, Head of Insurance, Weybourne Holdings; Mansi Kalra, Managing Director, JBA Risk Management Pte Ltd; Franck Baron, Chief Risk Officer, International SOS; and George McGhie, Strategic Adviser - Asia Pacific, Artex Risk Solutions.  The panel session sought to explore the potential role of insurance-linked securities (ILS) in corporate risk management.  The group discussed how corporate risk managers and insurance buyers think of the ILS opportunity and whether they believe it is a viable and complementary source of risk capital to add to their insurance towers.  They also explored the broader potential for use of insurance-linked securities (ILS) in corporate risk management, as well as topics such as parametric risk transfer, which is becoming a key corporate risk transfer tool.  With two insurance buyers on the panel representing large users of risk transfer, the panel provided an insightful look into how corporates might increasingly look to ILS and what the ILS market can do to help them engage more with the capital markets as a source of insurance risk transfer.  Listen to this full podcast episode to learn more about corporate risk management in Asia and how large insurance buyers think of the insurance-linked securities (ILS) opportunity.

This fireside chat interview took place on stage at the Artemis ILS Asia 2023 conference in Singapore on July 13th.  This session features a discussion with William Ho, the CEO of MS Amlin Asia Pacific, and Head of Reinsurance (Asia) for MS Amlin, about his expertise in the region, his firm's view of the reinsurance market there and also its use of insurance-linked securities (ILS).  MS Amlin has now sponsored three capital market arrangements that have been issued out of Singapore, all under the Phoenix Re name and all constituting quota share sidecar arrangements, backed by ILS investor capital.  Ho provided some insights into the importance of the Asia Pacific region to his employer MS Amlin, as well as his priorities for the business there as CEO.  He then went on to explain the motivation for sponsoring the Phoenix Re sidecar structures, the experience of doing so out of Singapore and the reception the deal's received from the ILS investor community.  Listen to the full podcast episode to learn more about the Asian reinsurance market place from the perspective of an ILS sponsor there, as well as William Ho's thoughts on the MS Amlin offering in Asia Pacific and his intentions for future use of the Singapore ILS regulatory regime.

This panel discussion took place at the Artemis ILS Asia 2023 conference in Singapore on July 13th.  This session was moderated by Michael Dunsire, Regional Director, APAC, Aon Insurance Managers.  The panellists taking part were: Simon Goh, Partner, Head of Insurance & Reinsurance, Rajah & Tann; Matthew Song, Executive Director, Head of Corporate and Institutional Client, SGX Group; Tim Yip, Executive Director & Portfolio Manager, ILS Advisers / HSZ Group; Scott McHardy, Head of Risk Finance, Toka Tū Ake EQC.  Momentum surrounding Singapore's ILS market hub continues to build, and this panel featured a discussion about the future of ILS in the country and what is needed to sustain ILS as a component of Singapore's broader financial activities.  The group discussed the current status of the Singapore ILS regulatory offering, as well as recent changes to the Singapore ILS Grant Scheme.  They also explored the broader potential for use of insurance-linked securities (ILS) within Singapore and the Asia Pacific region.  In addition, a recent first-time catastrophe bond sponsor on the panel, in Scott McHardy, Head of Risk Finance, Toka Tū Ake EQC, discussed the experience of using Singapore as a cat bond issuance domicile and explained how the regulator and service providers had supported the EQC through that process.  Listen to the full podcast episode to learn more about the insurance-linked securities (ILS) market in Singapore, the Singapore ILS regulatory regime and the continued investment that the country is making in developing a sustainable ILS hub component within its capital market.

This keynote speech took place at the Artemis ILS Asia 2023 conference in Singapore on July 13th.  This session featured Stefan Kräuchi and Tim Yip of Hong Kong based ILS investment manager and advisory firm ILS Advisers, which is part of the HSZ Group, discussing the Asian ILS investor landscape from their vantage point of being the only asset manager with a focus on the asset class that is located in the region.  The pair discussed some of the characteristics of ILS investors in the Asia region, as well as the ILS opportunities to invest in insurance risk originated from that part of the world.  They also explored the insurance and reinsurance landscape and why, despite having some of the largest reinsurers based there, Asian companies are so far not as advanced in managing ILS capacity themselves.  In addition, the ILS Advisers duo explored reasons for ILS having a slower uptake in Asia and what holds back more Asian insurance risk making it into the ILS market.  Listen to the full podcast episode to learn more about the Asian insurance-linked securities (ILS) market, its investor base and the market conditions in this location.

Christian Mumenthaler, the CEO of global reinsurance giant Swiss Re joined us for an interview and explained that he believes that the hard market in reinsurance will be sustained, at least for a few years.  During this Artemis Live interview, Mumenthaler discusses reinsurance market efficiencies, the insurance protection gap, secondary peril effects, the capital markets and insurance-linked securities (ILS), as well as the current state of the reinsurance market and the outlook for the end of year reinsurance renewals.  On the outlook for year-end and beyond, Mumenthaler said, "We shouldn't forget that the industry has gone through a pretty bad period with a lot of losses, not just natural catastrophes, also COVID and other things.  "Reinsurers, in particular, have been a shock absorber for a lot of the negative things of the last few years and, in the end, we're all one value chain and it is necessary that every piece gets the capital from shareholders, and there's a dire need for reinsurance to have a higher return, to go back, to have an average over time that is sufficient.  "So I see a huge need for reinsurers to become more profitable at this stage and so I think this will also sustain prices as we go through.  "Now, if you have big losses, I could absolutely imagine prices to go further up. If there's absolutely nothing happening, we will see.  "So there's this time correlation that's that's going to be playing a role, but overall from an environment, if we have a normal load of nat cat, I absolutely see the hard market to sustain for a few more years."  Listen to this full podcast episode for more insights from Christian Mumenthaler, CEO of Swiss Re.

This fireside chat interview took place at the Artemis ILS Asia 2023 conference in Singapore on July 13th.  This session featured a discussion with Lorenzo Volpi, Deputy CEO and Managing Partner of specialist insurance-linked securities (ILS) investment manager Leadenhall Capital Partners, focusing on his firms operations as a diversified ILS investment manager.  Volpi discussed the benefits of having a diversified range of strategies available for investors, with funds focused on both the P&C and life sides of insurance and reinsurance opportunities.  Volpi went on to explore some of the priorities Leadenhall Capital Partners has at the moment, as well as his thoughts on the ILS market within Asia specifically.  He then spoke about the current ILS and reinsurance market dynamic, highlighting the attractive investment opportunity it currently presents.  Listen to the full podcast episode to learn more about the operations of a diversified ILS investment manager, as well as Lorenzo Volpi's thoughts on Leadenhall Capital Partner's priorities and market conditions today.

This opening keynote speech was delivered at the Artemis ILS Asia 2023 conference in Singapore on July 13th.  During his speech, Cheng Khai Lim, Executive Director, Financial Markets Development Department at the Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS), highlighted the importance of building out greater structuring and deal capabilities in the Asia region, as Singapore continues to streamline its insurance-linked securities (ILS) regulatory regime.  He discussed growth prospects for insurance-linked securities (ILS) markets globally and in the Asia region.  In particularly, he pointed to the need for significant reinsurance protection from traditional and also non-traditional sources, such as the capital markets, to better protect against rising losses from natural catastrophes in the region.  Lim said that the Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS) is committed to supporting the establishment of ILS structuring capabilities and growing ILS issuance in Singapore.  The Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS) will also continue to support catastrophe bond and insurance-linked securities issuance in the Asia and Pacific region through the extension of its ILS grant scheme by a further three years, to run until the end of 2025.  Listen to this full podcast episode to learn more about the activities of the Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS) in fostering insurance-linked securities (ILS) activity in Asia and Singapore.

The insurance-linked securities (ILS) fund manager community continues to deal with trapped collateral from previous catastrophe years, but the opportunity cost has grown, we learned in our latest Artemis Live video interview.  Our latest Artemis Live video interview is with Megan Green, a Partner in the PwC Bermuda Asset Management Assurance Group.  Green's work is focused on providing assurance services to clients in the asset management industry including insurance linked securities providers and she joined us to discuss insurance-linked securities (ILS) asset management activity in Bermuda today.  Green highlighted trapped collateral as a continuing issue for ILS fund managers and one that now comes with an increasing opportunity cost.  She explained that alongside investor appetite and capital raising, trapped collateral remains the other hot-topic for ILS managers.  "That's been an issue for a few years now, but we are seeing collateral get released, which is great," Green said.  But continued, "I think in this market, with rates being as strong as they are, it almost shows that the opportunity cost of that trapped collateral is greater. "So it's probably getting an even greater focus, because obviously investors and ILS managers would love that to be deployed."  While trapped, this collateral and capital cannot be recycled to be put to work in fresh reinsurance arrangements, which in the hard market environment would come with significantly higher-yields than the arrangements that now see collateral still trapped.  Green went on to say that, "It'll be interesting to see what happens in that space. You know, you obviously have your commutations that are going on. But, there's chatter about whether standard commutation clauses are put in contracts, if that solves the problem. So I'll be interested to see what happens."  Listen to the full podcast episode for more insights from PwC Bermuda's Megan Green.

Insurers have lost control of their claims frequency, the speakers in our latest Artemis Live video interview explained, as technology enabled claims instigation has exploded, driving a significant increase in litigated claims. For our latest Artemis Live interview we spoke with Joe Petrelli, who is well-known in the industry as the President and Co-Founder of rating agency Demotech and now also a co-founder of 4WARN Inc, and Todd Kozikowski, CEO, co-founder and shareholder of 4WARN, INC.  This is a little different to our typical interviews as we wanted to allow the speakers to get the data across, so there is a presentation involved as well. If you're listening to the podcast and want to see the slides, please find our YouTube channel for Artemis.bm. Joe and Todd have been working closely together to deliver insights for the insurance and reinsurance industry that have previously been masked or hidden, but are extremely pertinent today. Specifically, they have undertaken significant work to mine and analyse data, to help insurers and reinsurers better understand some of the causes of the explosive claims litigation trends affecting the industry today, especially in the United States. 4Warn Inc. is a relatively new venture the pair have established to provide awareness of tech-enabled claim instigation, to assist carriers and third parties remediate claim instigation.    They define tech-enabled claim instigation as the confluence of litigation funding, litigation marketing, litigation financing and search engine optimization to initiate claims. Viewers and listeners to our podcast will be only too familiar with the claims inflation and loss amplification trend seen in catastrophe events over the last few years, in Florida and other regions.  The work Joe and Todd have been and continue to do, sheds light on murky practices that are ramping up claims inflation today and causing issues to insurers and reinsurers, while also contributing to the challenges of insurability we see with some carriers exiting regions that are both catastrophe or climate affected, but importantly some of the most affected by litigation too. Listen to this full episode to learn more about the way digital techniques are weaponising insurance claims litigation, driving a significant elevation in claims frequency through to insurers, with ramifications for reinsurance and ILS market interests.

Parametric insurance solutions continue to be more broadly adopted, but the technology behind their triggers is also critical and solutions are developing fast.  Artemis recently spoke with Callum Higgins from Moody’s RMS, a Product Manager for Moody’s RMS event response services, and Martin Hotz, Head Parametric Nat Cat at Swiss Re Corporate Solutions, to learn more about how parametric triggers are used in hurricane insurance and risk transfer today.  The pair discussed advanced catastrophe risk modelling tools and their application in delivering parametric risk transfer solutions, with a particular focus on hurricane risk and the Moody’s RMS HWind product.  Higgins explained some of the use-cases for the HWind product in risk transfer and said that, "Specifically, in the insurance-linked securities space, around live cat trading for instance, making decisions around that, but also on the investor relations side. So being able to communicate to your investors while the storms approaching lands, what that could mean for the funds, for instance.  "The ILS space is one area we've seen HWind forecasting in particular being used quite a lot."  Hotz highlighted how Swiss Re uses the HWind product, saying, "We offer parametric hurricane insurance to our commercial insureds based on the wind-speed data from Moody's RMS and their HWind real-time data and we have issued our first policy that settles based on HWind back in 2016.  "So we're now in our eighth hurricane season of providing such cover and did pay also in some of the industry-shaping events over the past couple of years.  "For us, HWind meets the criteria of being a fast, independent and reliable data service, which as with any parametric policy is always at the core."  Listen to this full podcast episode for insights into parametric insurance and risk transfer, as well as the role of models and real-time data in parametric triggers.

This was the fourth session of the day at our Artemis ILS NYC 2023 conference, held in New York on February 10th 2023.  This conference was Artemis' largest insurance-linked securities (ILS) event to-date, with over 390 registered attendees enjoying a wide-range of insightful speaking sessions and networking opportunities throughout the day.  Attendees came from around the world to hear thought-provoking discussions from insurance-linked securities (ILS) market leaders, all under the theme of "(Re)construction & Renewal(s)."  This fourth session from our ILS NYC 2023 conference features a panel discussion focused on new opportunities within insurance-linked securities (ILS) and catastrophe bonds, titled: (Re)newed opportunities - Where next and how to get there.  The panel discussion was moderated by Tom Johansmeyer, Head of PCS, Verisk Insurance Solutions (now of Inver Re).  He was joined by: Julia Henderson, Chief Commercial Officer (CCO), Vesttoo; Chris Caponigro, Global Head, AXIS ILS, AXIS Capital; and Michael Millette, Founder & Managing Partner, Hudson Structured Capital Management.  The discussion was wide-ranging and saw panellists speaking about many of the opportunities they see as tangible areas to expand the ILS asset class into.  Speaking from their extensive experience, the panellists noted the need for continued work in educating investors, about the new opportunities available in ILS, plus their expectation that market growth could come just as quickly from non-catastrophe areas of ILS, as it will from the more traditional catastrophe business lines.  Listen to the full podcast audio from this panel discussion for more insights into how the insurance-linked securities (ILS) and catastrophe bond market continues to expand its horizons, to new classes of business and opportunities.

Two competing factors are set to drive the conversation during the 2023 Atlantic hurricane season, as well as the risk. But there are other important areas insurance, reinsurance and ILS market interests should remain alert to, according to Jeff Waters of Moody's RMS.  Jeff Waters is a meteorologist and has been the Product Owner for the RMS North Atlantic Hurricane Models since 2018.  He’s been at the company for over a decade in roles focused on hurricane modelling and joined us to discuss the hurricane season just as it officially began.  Commenting on the forecasts we've reported on, Waters said, "The majority of the forecasts tended to focus on two competing factors, the first is the the ENSO state, the other competing factor is the sea surface temperatures in the Atlantic basin, those continue to be well above average.  "So you have two different competing items happening and I think in a lot of instances, the forecasts that are coming out for this season, are are almost expecting the two to offset each other to an extent."  He went on to explain the uncertainty this presents though, not least due to timing, saying, "Some of the more recent forecasts that have come out have started to deviate from that, that average range there, so certainly pointing to some of the uncertainty that could play out over the next four to six months, especially if one of those signals, whether it be the state of the basin in terms of sea surface temperatures, or the transition to an El Nino state, if one of those happens earlier or later than expected.  "Or perhaps the El Nino state isn't quite as strong as it's currently projected to be, that could have a direct influence on how the season plays out in terms of hurricane hurricane activity and the total number of named storms."  Waters went on to discuss how these climate signals could translate into direct risk for US landfalls, what insurance, reinsurance and ILS markets should be watching closely and how to think about the latest risk modelling tools that can assist with analysing hurricane risk this season.  Listen to the full podcast episode for many more insights into the 2023 Atlantic hurricane season from Moody's RMS' Jeff Waters.

The global captive insurance marketplace and how it is developing was the focus of our latest Artemis Live video interview and we learned that data is critical to help in effective captive formation.  Our latest Artemis Live video interview is with David Gibbons of PwC, a Partner and the Captive Insurance Leader at PwC Bermuda.  David works with some of the largest captive accounts in the world and delivers captive insurance solutions throughout the captive lifecycle.  In this interview we discussed some current captive insurance market conditions and trends David is seeing, both in Bermuda and globally.  Asking David how he views the current captive insurance market, he said, "If you gave me one word, I would say active. If you gave me two words, I'd say very active."  "I think that activity is on really two fronts. One is you're seeing new formations and you're seeing the speed from interest to formation move, from potentially one-to-three years, to a few months once a feasibility study is done," he explained.  "I think the other area of activity we're seeing is existing captives re-looking at the business they write, not only the lines, but the layers and as they negotiate pricing with reinsurers looking to see what portions of the business they may take that they have traditionally not taken."  On the Bermuda captive insurance market, Gibbons noted that it remains a leader, thanks to its strong and responsive regulator and regulatory environment, its adjacency to global reinsurance capital, and the abundance of local expertise and service providers.  He said the captive market remains niche, although it is growing and that it's vital to have talent on hand that understands what it means to be at the cutting edge of where the captive insurance industry has been and where it's going, while access to data is seen as a critical feature for effective captive insurer formation. Watch the full video interview for more insights from PwC Bermuda's David Gibbons.

Establishing insurance-linked securities (ILS) investment management operations and the impact of recent international tax developments in the industry was the focus of our latest Artemis Live video interview.  Our latest Artemis Live podcast episode is with Scott Slater of PwC, a Partner and the Tax Services Leader at PwC Bermuda. Scott also leads PwC in the Caribbean’s International Tax Services group, which is based in Bermuda and the Cayman Islands. In this interview we discussed some recent international tax developments and how they could affect insurance, reinsurance and also insurance-linked securities (ILS) interests. Slater explained that a key area of focus for his practice and team, in relation to insurance-linked securities (ILS) market participants, is the controlled foreign corporation (CFC) rules and the passive foreign investment company (PFIC) rules. “In the ILS space, most of these structures are either CFC’s or PFIC, and our practice specialises in giving the information that those US investors need to complete their tax returns and satisfy their reporting requirements for making that foreign investment,” he said. Slater also explained that a component of the work his team at PwC undertakes is to help ILS investment managers identify the right structures for their businesses, from a taxation point of view. “It's an interesting conversation, particularly with those asset manager backed ILS vehicles, to explain to them what has to happen in Bermuda and the people they need to get in Bermuda to satisfy those requirements, to mitigate the risk that they've somehow created a taxable presence in the US. “So we work with a lot of clients around the structure, but also the people functions and the activities that need to happen from Bermuda, to achieve that tax result,” he commented.  Listen to this podcast episode for more insights from PwC Bermuda's Scott Slater.

This was the third session of the day at our Artemis ILS NYC 2023 conference, held in New York on February 10th 2023.  This conference was Artemis' largest insurance-linked securities (ILS) event to-date, with over 390 registered attendees enjoying a wide-range of insightful speaking sessions and networking opportunities throughout the day.  Attendees came from around the world to hear thought-provoking discussions from insurance-linked securities (ILS) market leaders, all under the theme of "(Re)construction & Renewal(s)."  This third podcast from our ILS NYC 2023 conference features a panel discussion focused on the Florida insurance and reinsurance market, challenges that must be overcome, as well as the ILS industry perspective on that, titled: (Re)constructing a healthy market.  The panel discussion was moderated by Judith Klugman, Global Head of ILS Distribution, Swiss Re Capital Markets.  She was joined by: Jennifer Montero, Chief Financial Officer, Citizens Property Insurance Corporation; Michael Stahel, Partner/Portfolio Manager, LGT ILS Partners Ltd.; Adam Schwebach, EVP, Tampa Branch Manager, Gallagher Re.  The discussion was wide-ranging around some of the challenges faced in Florida, the work that is being undertaken both legislatively and at re/insurers to improve the situation, as well as the appetite of reinsurance and ILS capital to be deployed in the state and what else might help to encourage more risk capital back to Florida.  The panellists discussed some of the challenges this side of the market has faced in recent years, while also highlighting steps that have been taken to help in rebuilding investor confidence and also looked ahead to the prospects for a return to growth.  Listen to the full podcast audio of this Florida insurance, reinsurance and ILS focused panel discussion, for more insights into that important peak peril region, the prospects for improvement there and what else might need to change to attract more capacity back to Florida.

When it comes to underwriting cyber risks, capital, whether traditional insurance and reinsurance, or alternative from the insurance-linked securities (ILS) market, "has to be rewarded", Matt Harrison from risk modelling and analytics specialist Moody’s RMS, told us in our latest Artemis Live interview in April 2023.  As Director of Product Management for Cyber at Moody’s RMS, Harrison sets the strategy on building their cyber risk focused modelling products and analytical solutions.  He also spends his time helping insurance-linked securities investors and funds to understand cyber risk as a class of risk to expand their allocations to.  Harrison explained that, when it comes to building models for cyber risk, Moody's RMS is taking a targeted approach.  "I'm not going to build this huge comprehensive suite of stuff and waste my time, I really want to be targeted about that.  "Really from a from a model perspective, we try and divide the world into like perils. I think sometimes we hear this language about scenarios and scenarios are very bespoke things. We've got to think much more holistically, or otherwise we're not covering the whole risk spectrum.  "So we think about cloud outages, data breach, malware, and ransomware, things like DDoS so attacks against networks and in each of those, we want to build a model that really tries to describe the physics of the system, if that if that's a sensible way of describing it," he told us.  Later in the interview, Harrison also highlighted the need for capital to be adequately rewarded for taking on cyber exposures. " One of the problems for the insurance and reinsurance industry is, there is a limited amount of diversification within cyber. There's only so much diversification that you can find, and therefore that capital has to work harder, it has to be rewarded," Harrison said. "I think that's why the demand is so high for capital to come in, to really drive it. But the way that we see it is that it has to pay a risk premium, because of that diversification." Listen to the full podcast episode for many more insights on cyber risk and cyber risk models from Moody's RMS' Matt Harrison.

This was the second session of the day at our Artemis ILS NYC 2023 conference, held in New York on February 10th 2023.  This conference was Artemis' largest insurance-linked securities (ILS) event to-date, with over 390 registered attendees enjoying a wide-range of insightful speaking sessions and networking opportunities throughout the day.  Attendees came from around the world to hear thought-provoking discussions from insurance-linked securities (ILS) market leaders, all under the theme of "(Re)construction & Renewal(s)."  This second session from our ILS NYC 2023 conference features a panel discussion focused on the private ILS and collateralized reinsurance side of the market, titled: (Re)building confidence.  The panel discussion was moderated by Mark Gibson, Head of Products & Solutions ILS, Schroders Capital.  He was joined by: Kathleen Faries, CEO, Artex Capital Solutions; Eveline Takken-Somers, Senior Director, Lead Portfolio Manager - Insurance Portfolio, PGGM; and Chin Liu, MD, Director of ILS, Fixed Income Solutions, Responsible Investment Research, Amundi US.  The discussion focused on the largest segment of the ILS market, where collateralised reinsurance and private ILS assets are structured and invested in.  The panellists discussed some of the challenges this side of the market has faced in recent years, while also highlighting steps that have been taken to help in rebuilding investor confidence and also looked ahead to the prospects for a return to growth.  Listen to the full episode for a private ILS and collateralized reinsurance focused panel discussion, as well as more insights into the potential for the ILS market to continue growing its importance in global reinsurance circles.

This was the first session of the day at our Artemis ILS NYC 2023 conference, held in New York on February 10th 2023. This conference was Artemis' largest insurance-linked securities (ILS) event to-date, with over 390 registered attendees enjoying a wide-range of insightful speaking sessions and networking opportunities throughout the day.  Attendees came from around the world to hear thought-provoking discussions from insurance-linked securities (ILS) market leaders, all under the theme of "(Re)construction & Renewal(s)."  This first session from our ILS NYC 2023 conference features a panel discussion focused on the cat bond market, titled: (Re)setting expectations in catastrophe bonds.  The panel discussion was moderated by John Seo, Co-Founder, Managing Director, Fermat Capital Management, LLC.  He was joined by: Mariagiovanna (Patti) Guatteri, CEO / CIO, Swiss Re Insurance-Linked Investment Advisors Corporation; Philipp Kusche, Global Head of ILS & Capital Solutions, Howden Tiger; Lorenzo Volpi, Deputy CEO, Managing Partner, Leadenhall Capital Partners LLP; and Chris McKeown, Chief Executive, Reinsurance, ILS & Innovation, Vantage Risk.  The discussion focused on current catastrophe bond market dynamics, asking whether higher returns are here to stay and where the market is destined to move towards through 2023 and beyond.  The panellists also discussed the differences between cat bonds and other ILS formats, such as collateralized reinsurance, debating how different they should be considered by investors, as well as what the relative attraction is to them.  Listen to this episode for a catastrophe bond focused panel discussion featuring more insights into the potential for the ILS market to continue growing its importance in global reinsurance circles.

The World Bank is "extremely pleased" with the response from investors and reinsurance markets to the recent placement of $630 million of catastrophe bonds and catastrophe swaps to protect Chile, according to Jorge Familiar, Vice President and Treasurer.  Jorge Familiar of the World Bank joined us in March 2023 for an Artemis Live interview to discuss the recent successful placement of $350 million of International Bank for Reconstruction and Development (IBRD) issued catastrophe bonds, alongside $280 million of catastrophe swaps, to provide the Republic of Chile with $630 million of earthquake insurance protection.  Familiar explained that the investor response was gratifying and said that it was important to time the issuance carefully, in order to maximise execution for the country.  "We are extremely pleased with the response," Familiar said.  "Markets have been going through a period of volatility, and there are many elements of uncertainty. So, you know, finding the right time and the right structure to do this was was important and I don't think that the outcome could have been any better," he explained.  World Bank Treasurer Familiar added, "I'm very pleased with the result of the operation, by going simultaneously in bond and swap form really created value for for Chile.  "The size of the operation kept going up as market interest started materialising and then the pricing of the operation came out at very reasonable terms.  "So, you know, strong demand that helped us create significant value for Chile."  Listen to the full episode for more insights from World Bank Treasurer Jorge Familiar.

The “denominator effect” and investor rebalancing across asset classes has driven some of the biggest challenges for the insurance-linked securities (ILS) market in recent months, Chris Parry, Global Head of Capital Partners at RenaissanceRe, told us in our latest Artemis Live interview in March 2023.  Chris Parry leads the third-party capital, insurance-linked securities (ILS) and joint-venture businesses at the global reinsurance company.  He joined us in March 2023 to speak about the state of the insurance-linked securities market, the ILS investor trends he is seeing, his outlook for the rest of this year, and the strategic priorities for the RenaissanceRe Capital Partners business.  Discussing the current state of play in ILS and third-party reinsurance capital, Parry said the market has faced its share of challenges of late.  Parry explained that this "denominator effect" meant some large institutional investors have had to rebalance their portfolios, having become overweight to ILS and reinsurance after global asset values declined in the last year.  This is a trend that has yet to play out fully, but Parry is also positive and his unit at RenaissanceRe has successfully raised new funds, while the multi-strategy approach of the RenRe Capital Partners platform has provided greater optionality for investors to access ILS and reinsurance returns, he believes.  Listen to the full episode for many more insights from RenaissanceRe's Chris Parry.

Bermuda's insurance and reinsurance market is readily taking steps to embrace ESG within their business models, but there is a lot to do and the work can become very technical, according to Marisa Savage at PwC Bermuda.  Our latest Artemis Live interview is with Marisa Savage of PwC, a Partner in the PwC Bermuda Insurance practice, as well as leader of the PwC Actuarial Services practice for the Caribbean region.  Also the ESG Leader for PwC Bermuda, in this interview we discussed the importance of environmental, social and governance considerations.  Savage also explained how Bermuda's insurance, reinsurance and insurance-linked securities (ILS) market is adopting ESG within their business models and the important role regulation is playing in driving these trends.  She laid out the current state of play saying, "What are companies doing to move the ESG needle. So I think most big players, you can see when you talk about the underwriting side of things, they're making commitments, say, by 2020 or 2030, to stop underwriting coal fired projects or other carbon intensive exposures.  "They're also looking at the investment side of their balance-sheet to look at the mandates they have for their advisors, to make sure that what they're investing in is ESG friendly. Those are the two areas that companies are really looking at, to evolve in, and to make their mark on the ESG side of things."  However, Savage noted that making their mark in ESG-terms requires good governance, something PwC works to assist their clients with.  "We are a trust and solutions based organisation, that is our value proposition and on the trust side, that's going to mean delivering assurance, on ESG reporting matters. As standards come out, they're going to be requiring assurance and we are well placed to provide that assurance for our clients.  "On the solutions side of things, working with clients on ESG strategy, on evaluating governance frameworks and things like that."  Listen to the full episode for more insights from PwC Bermuda's Marisa Savage.

The Bermuda insurance and reinsurance market has weathered recent global volatility and elevated levels of catastrophe events extremely well, demonstrating its resilience, according to Matt Britten at PwC Bermuda.  Our latest Artemis Live interview is with Matt Britten of PwC, a Partner in the PwC Bermuda Insurance and Reinsurance practice, as well as the Risk Assurance practice leader there.  Britten joined us to discuss the state of the market in Bermuda, touching on insurance, reinsurance and also insurance-linked securities (ILS) conditions there.  We also spoke about the volatile macro environment around the globe and how the Bermuda re/insurance and ILS market has navigated this.  Britten explained that, "When you think about just how challenging the environment has been for the Bermuda market, the multiple years of cat losses exceeding $100 billion, far-reaching impacts of the global pandemic, and more recently, rampant inflation and the rapid rise in interest rates, I think you have to say that the Bermuda market has weathered extremely well.  "It's shown fantastic resilience, it continues to innovate and it remains a market that attracts new capital and new entrants."  On the need for re/insurers and ILS firms to demonstrate they can deliver an acceptable level of returns to their capital providers, Britten feels the newly hardened reinsurance market will make it more feasible for costs-of-capital to be sustainably met.  He added, "I definitely feel that 1/1 of this year was a turning point, that should start to allow reinsurers to have a platform from which they can start generating those returns that will help them meet their cost-of-capital."  Listen to the full episode for more insights from PwC Bermuda's Matt Britten.

The global insurance, reinsurance and insurance-linked securities (ILS) industry has a clear seat at the table on discussions and actions related to climate change, according to Arthur Wightman at PwC Bermuda.  Our latest Artemis Live interview is with Arthur Wightman of PwC, the territory leader for PwC Bermuda and also the firm's lead on markets and for the insurance industry sector across the Caribbean region.  Wightman joined us to discuss the state of the insurance and reinsurance market, both in Bermuda and globally.  We also discussed climate change and the role of the insurance, reinsurance and ILS industry.  Wightman explained that, "There's just a huge volatility in in how climate change is manifesting, in terms of underwriting and the risks that are being underwritten. So there's there's an enormous amount of effort being placed on gathering data, new data that certainly looks different from data ten years ago, using technology to better understand and price risk.  "Because if you think that the risk profile of natural catastrophes is manifestly changing, you're essentially hitting a moving target with underwriting at the moment and that's something that is taking up a lot of focus.  "Particularly at a time when there is increasing pressure for executives to deliver appropriate capital returns to shareholders and, essentially solidifying the long-term value proposition of reinsurance as a whole."  Listen to the full episode for more insights from PwC Bermuda's Arthur Wightman.

For our latest Artemis Live interview, we discussed the state of the catastrophe bond market after hurricane Ian and the opportunities now available to investors with Florian Steiger, Head of Cat Bonds at specialist ILS and reinsurance asset manager Twelve Capital.  Steiger explained that the catastrophe bond market actually got lucky with hurricane Ian, as had the storm made landfall further north close to Tampa, or impacted Miami, the realised losses for the cat bond segment could have been much more significant.  "I think, the outcome of hurricane Ian, and as we also see it now that there's more clarity, I think it's a rather positive outcome and it could have been much worse," Steiger explained in our video interview.  Steiger discussed how his firm, investment manager Twelve Capital, is viewing the prospect for catastrophe bond losses from hurricane Ian.  He also explained the investment manager's view on the market opportunities that are now available to investors in cat bonds, as returns rise significantly given the pricing in of risk and losses.  Listen to this full podcast episode for more insights into the post-Ian catastrophe bond market environment.

This was the seventh session of the day from our Artemis London 2022 conference, held on September 6th, 2022.  The event was Artemis' first insurance-linked securities (ILS) conference held in the City of London and saw more than 240 attendees enjoy a wide-range of sessions and networking opportunities.  Themed largely around the catastrophe bond, attendees heard from expert speakers that have been in the sector for years, as well as newcomers with ideas of how to innovate the cat bond and ILS market going forwards.  Attendees came from as far afield as New Zealand, Hawaii, Asia, North and South America, Bermuda, as well as a large European contingent, plus as you’d expect numerous London marketplace leaders in ILS and reinsurance.  This seventh video from the event features a panel discussion around the future evolution of the catastrophe bond marketplace and asks what comes next?  The panel discussion was moderated by Guillaume Courtet, Portfolio Manager ILS, Schroders. He was joined by: Adam Bornstein, Lead, Innovative Finance & Systems Change, Danish Red Cross; Brian Kirwan, General Manager, Europe, Vesttoo; and Mike Rich, Head ILS, Commodities & Environmental Strategies, K2 Advisors.  The discussion focused on where the panellists feel there is potential for the catastrophe bond and also broader insurance-linked securities (ILS) market to expand its scope.  The panellists also discussed potential niche use-cases for catastrophe bonds, including real-world examples of the evolution of the cat bond and ILS structure from their own experiences.  Listen to the full audio of this evolution of the catastrophe bond focused panel discussion for more insights into the potential for the ILS market to continue expanding its remit.

This was the sixth session of the day from our Artemis London 2022 conference, held on September 6th, 2022. The event was Artemis' first insurance-linked securities (ILS) conference held in the City of London and saw more than 240 attendees enjoy a wide-range of sessions and networking opportunities. Themed largely around the catastrophe bond, attendees heard from expert speakers that have been in the sector for years, as well as newcomers with ideas of how to innovate the cat bond and ILS market going forwards. Attendees came from as far afield as New Zealand, Hawaii, Asia, North and South America, Bermuda, as well as a large European contingent, plus as you’d expect numerous London marketplace leaders in ILS and reinsurance. This sixth session from the event features a panel discussion on the subject of London as a hub for catastrophe bonds and insurance-linked securities (ILS) The panel discussion was moderated by Des Potter, Special Advisor, Lloyd's. He was joined by: Lisa Leaman, Head of Division, London Markets, Prudential Regulation Authority, Bank of England; Shireen Gammoh, Partner, Head of Strategic & Financial Analytics, Gallagher Re; and Philipp Kusche, Global Head of ILS & Capital Solutions, TigerRisk Capital Markets & Advisory. The discussion focused on what is different about London's proposition, when it comes to catastrophe bonds and insurance-linked securities (ILS). It also covered opportunities the ILS market may be able to generate through closer and more direct trading with London based cedents and the Lloyd's marketplace. Listen to the full podcast episode of a London catastrophe bond and ILS focused panel discussion, for more insights into the potential for the market to make greater use of alternative reinsurance capital.

This was the fifth session of the day from our Artemis London 2022 conference, held on September 6th, 2022.  The event was Artemis' first insurance-linked securities (ILS) conference held in the City of London and saw more than 240 attendees enjoy a wide-range of sessions and networking opportunities.  Themed largely around the catastrophe bond, attendees heard from expert speakers that have been in the sector for years, as well as newcomers with ideas of how to innovate the cat bond and ILS market going forwards.  Attendees came from as far afield as New Zealand, Hawaii, Asia, North and South America, Bermuda, as well as a large European contingent, plus as you’d expect numerous London marketplace leaders in ILS and reinsurance.  This fifth session from the event features a keynote speech from the CFO and COO of Lloyd's, Burkhard Keese.  During his keynote, Burkhard Keese explained Lloyd's evolving approach to insurance-linked securities (ILS) and its appetite to expand its use of ILS structures to work directly with investors that want to supply third-party capital directly into the market.  "We have introduced London Bridge to open up the London market, the Lloyd's market, to institutional investors in an easy and modern way.  "Yes it took, I would say, at least ten years longer than it took in Bermuda and Guernsey, but we are now there," Keese explained.  Listen to this full podcast episode of Burkhard Keese's keynote speech for more insights into the Lloyd's insurance and reinsurance market's growing appetite for working with ILS investors

This was the fourth session of the day from our Artemis London 2022 conference, held on September 6th, 2022. The event was Artemis' first insurance-linked securities (ILS) conference held in the City of London and saw more than 240 attendees enjoy a wide-range of sessions and networking opportunities. Themed largely around the catastrophe bond, attendees heard from expert speakers that have been in the sector for years, as well as newcomers with ideas of how to innovate the cat bond and ILS market going forwards. Attendees came from as far afield as New Zealand, Hawaii, Asia, North and South America, Bermuda, as well as a large European contingent, plus as you’d expect numerous London marketplace leaders in ILS and reinsurance. This fourth session from the event begins with a keynote speech on "The readiness of cyber modelling for catastrophe bonds", from Matt Harrison, Director of Product Management - Cyber, at RMS. After the keynote speech, this session moves straight into a panel discussion on "The potential for cyber cat bonds", moderated by Quentin Perrot, Managing Director, ILS Origination and Structuring, GC Securities. Panellists participating in this cyber cat bond discussion were: Tom Johansmeyer, Head of PCS, Verisk; Matt Harrison - Director of Product Management - Cyber, RMS; and Raphael Rayees, PM, Traded ILS, Lead PM, Securis Catastrophe Bond Fund, Securis Investment Partners. The group followed on from the keynote speech, discussing how models have evolved for cyber risks, what other prerequisites there are for the development of cyber catastrophe bonds, structural considerations that need to be taken into account, and importantly the investor appetite for a cyber cat bond. Listen to the fill audio for the keynote speech and panel discussion on cyber catastrophe bonds.

This was the third session of the day from our Artemis London 2022 conference, held on September 6th, 2022.  The event was Artemis' first insurance-linked securities (ILS) conference held in the City of London and saw more than 240 attendees enjoy a wide-range of sessions and networking opportunities.  Themed largely around the catastrophe bond, attendees heard from expert speakers that have been in the sector for years, as well as newcomers with ideas of how to innovate the cat bond and ILS market going forwards.  Attendees came from as far afield as New Zealand, Hawaii, Asia, North and South America, Bermuda, as well as a large European contingent, plus as you’d expect numerous London marketplace leaders in ILS and reinsurance.  This third video from the event features a panel discussion on environmental, social and governance (ESG) trends in the catastrophe bond market, under the title of "ESG in the cat bond market. What next?", moderated by Dirk Schmelzer, Partner, Senior Portfolio Manager, Plenum Investments AG.  Panellists participating in this discussion were: Chantal Berendsen, Hedge Fund IDD Senior Analyst, Insurance Specialist, Albourne Partners; Siti Dawson, Executive Director, LGT ILS Partners; and Andy Palmer, Head ILS Structuring EMEA & APAC / CEO SRCML, Swiss Re.  The group discussed how ESG has increased as a priority with cat bond and ILS investors, what the ILS market is doing to respond to investors ESG needs and where the catastrophe bond market goes next on its journey towards becoming increasingly ESG appropriate as an asset class.  Listen to the full discussion for more of their comments.

This was the second session of the day from our Artemis London 2022 conference, held on September 6th, 2022. The event was Artemis' first insurance-linked securities (ILS) conference held in the City of London and saw more than 240 attendees enjoy a wide-range of sessions and networking opportunities.  Themed largely around the catastrophe bond, attendees heard from expert speakers that have been in the sector for years, as well as newcomers with ideas of how to innovate the cat bond and ILS market going forwards.  Attendees came from as far afield as New Zealand, Hawaii, Asia, North and South America, Bermuda, as well as a large European contingent, plus as you’d expect numerous London marketplace leaders in ILS and reinsurance.  This second video from the event features a panel discussion on climate, disaster risk and parametric catastrophe bonds, under the title of "Filling the Gaps", moderated by Maria Rapin, CEO of Nephila Climate.  Panellists participating in this discussion were: Lorenzo Volpi, Managing Partner, Leadenhall Capital Partners; Michael Bennett, Head of Derivatives & Structured Finance, World Bank Treasury; Nils Ossenbrink, Managing Partner, Head of Distribution and Products, Twelve Capital. The group discussed how instruments such as parametric cat bonds fit into ILS fund investment portfolios and how managers think about underwriting them.  On parametric cat bonds, Volpi of Leadenhall Capital Partners explained that, "Overall, premium is also important and ultimately you need to be paid for the risk, while the type of trigger is also an important factor when we look at these."  Ossenbrink of Twelve Capital added, "We believe for an institutional investor, or other investor, it's an ideal solution and really something we should try to grow."  Bennett, from the World Bank Treasury explained how the institution looks at the ILS market when bringing cat bond deals to market, "We will do everything we can to put it in a package that works for you modelling wise.  "We think we're bringing you something very valuable, the investor community. We're bringing you highly-diversifying risk, in an absolutely secure package, as it's the World Bank issuing these bonds.  "We think we're providing the market something extraordinarily valuable so we always ask you to work with us and have some flexibility."

This was the first session of the day from our Artemis London 2022 conference, held on September 6th, 2022.  The event was Artemis' first insurance-linked securities (ILS) conference held in the City of London and saw more than 240 attendees enjoy a wide-range of sessions and networking opportunities.  Themed largely around the catastrophe bond, attendees heard from expert speakers that have been in the sector for years, as well as newcomers with ideas of how to innovate the cat bond and ILS market going forwards.  Attendees came from as far afield as New Zealand, Hawaii, Asia, North and South America, Bermuda, as well as a large European contingent, plus as you’d expect numerous London marketplace leaders in ILS and reinsurance.  This first video from the event features Michael Millette, Founder & Managing Partner, Hudson Structured Capital Management, who gave a keynote speech on the catastrophe bond market to celebrate 25 years of its development.  During his keynote Millette said, “It’s important to have this conference now and to commemorate 25 years because the cat market, the cat bond market, and the broader reinsurance market, are all wrestling with and reconsidering some aspects of their structure in light of the difficult experience of the last five years. So, it’s a good time to take stock.”  He was then joined on stage by Alan Punter, NED, Occam Underwriting, where the pair discussed 25 landmark catastrophe bond deals from across the first 25 years of the cat bond market.

This is the fifth and final session from our Artemis ILS NYC 2022 conference, held in New York City on April 22nd, 2022. This was the largest insurance-linked securities conference in the world since our last in Feb 2020, prior to the pandemic (now eclipsed by our London event in September though, in terms of attendance). Over 200 attendees assembled in New York to hear industry expert speakers under the theme of "(Re)setting the scene", discussing the future of the insurance-linked securities (ILS) market as the COVID-19 pandemic abates and the industry adjusts to another year of catastrophe losses. This was the fifth session of the conference and featured a question and answer session with the four moderators from earlier panel discussions held that day. The four session leaders discussed a wide range of issues affecting the insurance-linked securities (ILS) market, from the need to deliver to its investor base, to opportunities to grow the pie. This session was moderated by: Steve Evans, Owner and Editor-in-Chief, Artemis.bm Participants were: Stephan Ruoff, Head of ILS, Schroders Capital; Tom Johansmeyer, Head of PCS, Verisk Insurance Solutions; Judith Klugman, Head ILS Sales, Swiss Re; and Ben Fox, Principal, Portfolio Manager, Hiscox ILS.

Christian Mumenthaler, the CEO of Swiss Re believes that the reinsurance market will continue to harden significantly, as so far the price gains made by the industry have been largely eaten up by issues elsewhere that affect the reinsurance balance-sheet.  Mumenthaler joined us for a new Artemis Live interview just before the Monte Carlo Rendez-vous 2022.  We discussed the current state of the reinsurance market, his expectations for year-end renewals, how his firm Swiss Re is managing global challenges, and the importance of alternative capital and insurance-linked securities (ILS) activities at the company.  Mumenthaler explained the Swiss Re view on global reinsurance market conditions and rate adequacy in the sector at this time, saying that rate hardening so far has been eaten up by live issues, leading him to predict further "significant" hardening at the January 2023 reinsurance renewals.

This is the fourth session from our Artemis ILS NYC 2022 conference, held in New York City on April 22nd, 2022.  This was the largest insurance-linked securities conference in the world since our last in Feb 2020, prior to the pandemic.  Over 200 attendees assembled in New York to hear industry expert speakers under the theme of "(Re)setting the scene", discussing the future of the insurance-linked securities (ILS) market as the COVID-19 pandemic abates and the industry adjusts to another year of catastrophe losses.  This was the fourth session of the conference and featured a lively debate on the topic of responsible investing and what that means for insurance-linked securities.  The panel discussed the fact the ILS asset class already provides responsible protection and so responsible investment opportunities, but how can this be built on and expanded in the coming years, and also asked what climate and ESG mean in the context of ILS investment strategies.  This session was moderated by: Tom Johansmeyer, Head of PCS, Verisk Insurance Solutions. Participants were: Lorenzo Volpi, Managing Partner, Leadenhall Capital Partners LLP; Tanya Watters, Vice President, ILS, Neuberger Berman; and Craig Hupper, SVP & MD, Environmental, Social and Governance, TransRe.

Our latest Artemis Live interview from June 2022 is with Niklaus Hilti, Head of ILS at specialist investment manager Credit Suisse Insurance Linked Strategies. Hilti joined us at a particularly busy and interesting time for the reinsurance, insurance-linked securities (ILS) and broader capital markets.  We discussed the macro-economic environment and how that plays into reinsurance and ILS market trends, as well as the catastrophe bond market, the mid-year 2022 reinsurance renewals, the state of Florida's property insurance market and the outlook for the rest of the year.  Hilti also explained how his firm, Credit Suisse Insurance Linked Strategies, has been working hard to deliver on its promises to investors, taking advantage of hardening reinsurance market conditions to reposition its portfolio and tighten up terms and conditions.  One topic of focus in this interview is the global inflationary environment and how inflation needs to be factored into reinsurance and ILS market pricing.  He explained, "If today a hurricane or earthquake event happens again, a historical one, it would be significantly more expensive than what is captured already in the most update model version.  "Then if you look at cat bonds, let's say a three year placement, you have to think as well, what's the claims inflation over the next three years.  "It's something which needs to be factored in and that raises the question of how adequate is the pricing, or how much did we really see a real, real increase of margin or premium with the latest premium increases. For us, that is the most critical question at the moment."

This is the third session from our Artemis ILS NYC 2022 conference, held in New York City on April 22nd, 2022.  This was the largest insurance-linked securities conference in the world since our last in Feb 2020, prior to the pandemic.  Over 200 attendees assembled in New York to hear industry expert speakers under the theme of "(Re)setting the scene", discussing the future of the insurance-linked securities (ILS) market as the COVID-19 pandemic abates and the industry adjusts to another year of catastrophe losses.  This was the third session of the conference and featured a vibrant discussion on the topic of why the ILS market needs to become increasingly differentiated, in order to offer investors choice and ensure it can meet ceding company needs, as well as how much progress is really being made in expanding the ILS asset class into new classes of insurance and reinsurance business.  This session was moderated by: Stephan Ruoff, Head of ILS, Schroders Capital.  Participants were: Brittany Baker, Director - Technical Sales in Growth, CyberCube; Rob Hauff, Portfolio Manager, Vesttoo; and James Lee, Managing Director, Aspen Capital Markets.

This is the second session from our Artemis ILS NYC 2022 conference, held in New York City on April 22nd, 2022. This was the largest insurance-linked securities conference in the world since our last in Feb 2020, prior to the pandemic. Over 200 attendees assembled in New York to hear industry expert speakers under the theme of "(Re)setting the scene", discussing the future of the insurance-linked securities (ILS) market as the COVID-19 pandemic abates and the industry adjusts to another year of catastrophe losses. This was the second session of the conference and featured an insightful conversation about how the ILS market can capitalise on its successes, while broadening access to its products and investment opportunities, with a particular focus across catastrophe bonds, as well as discussion of other reinsurance-linked arrangements and investments. This session was moderated by: Judith Klugman, Head ILS Sales, Swiss Re. Participants were: David Flitman, CEO, Safepoint Insurance; Chris Caponigro, Global Head, AXIS ILS; Philipp Kusche, Global Head ILS & Capital Solutions, TigerRisk Capital Markets & Advisory.

This is the first session from our Artemis ILS NYC 2022 conference, held in New York City on April 22nd, 2022.  This was the largest insurance-linked securities conference in the world since our last in Feb 2020, prior to the pandemic.  Over 200 attendees assembled in New York to hear industry expert speakers under the theme of "(Re)setting the scene", discussing the future of the insurance-linked securities (ILS) market as the COVID-19 pandemic abates and the industry adjusts to another year of catastrophe losses.  This was the first session of the conference and featured a focused discussion on the importance of the ILS asset class reducing surprises where possible, delivering transparency and keeping investors and counterparties informed.  The session was moderated by Ben Fox, Principal, Portfolio Manager, Hiscox ILS.  Participants were: Matthew Ball, Senior Director, WTW; Cory Anger, Managing Director, GC Securities; and Matthew Berdoff, Head of IR & Fundraising, Hudson Structured Capital Management.

This new Artemis Live interview from May 2022 is with Luca Albertini, CEO of specialist insurance-linked securities (ILS) investment manager Leadenhall Capital Partners.  Albertini joined us to discuss market conditions in insurance-linked securities (ILS) and catastrophe bonds, as the mid-year reinsurance renewals approach.  He explained that there are multiple forces affecting the ILS and cat bond sector, but also that the legacy effects of softened terms and conditions are important to rectify.  Albertini noted that there has been "a lot to distract investors" and allocators, with multiple external factors from the situation in Ukraine, to inflation and rate rises having knock-on effects on the ILS market this year.  But these factors have also been one driver of recent catastrophe bond spread widening, on which Albertini said, "I hope it lasts for a while, because that is an embedded higher return for the investors."  Albertini went on to discuss the upcoming reinsurance renewals, the prospects for both cat bonds and collateralized reinsurance, as well as the need for ILS fund managers to focus on the sustainability of capital.

This new Artemis Live video saw us interviewing senior executives at insurance-linked securities (ILS) and reinsurance investment manager Aeolus Capital Management, to discuss their ongoing program of climate risk research and how that is playing into investment decision-making at the firm.  Aeolus' Chief Analytics Officer, Frank Fischer and Head of Research, Dr. Pete Dailey, joined us to explain how the program of climate risk research is playing an increasingly important role for the company.  Listeners may recall Pete and Frank joining me back in November 2021 (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=52HLXMpZ1tY), for an interview in which we discussed the Aeolus view on climate risk and climate change.  Fast-forward around six months and Aeolus has continued to put extensive effort into its climate risk related research, with a new paper published recently about the influence of climate change on hurricanes.  So, in this interview we got an update on the Aeolus view of climate risk, how the research is going, how these efforts are influencing the firm’s ILS decision-making and some more in-depth thoughts on the role of research information and data on risk selection and ILS portfolio management.

For this one of our sponsor showcase video interviews, for the upcoming Artemis ILS NYC 2022 conference (held April 22nd in New York City), we welcomed Shevawn Barder, CEO of AM Re Syndicate, one of our Bronze sponsors for the conference.  AM Re is a reinsurance managing general agent (MGA) and writes a diversified book of business, while leveraging capital partners support.  With the ILS market increasingly keen to access differentiated sources of risk, AM Re is also looking to partner with new and alternative capital sources, so we thought it would be interesting to hear Shevawn’s take on the market opportunity right now.  "ILS investors clearly have an appetite for program business, ILS markets are moving into program business because this market is currently hard and expected to hold for 2022 and beyond," Barder explained.  Adding that, "For 2022 we're seeking to bring in new strategic ILS partners, investors to replace lost capacity in certain lines of business and we're also expecting to launch our E&S carrier, ASI, authorised out of Arizona."

For this one of our sponsor showcase video interviews, for the upcoming Artemis ILS NYC 2022 conference (held April 22nd in New York City), we welcomed speakers from LGT ILS Partners, one of our Associate sponsors for the conference. Joining us for this conversation were Christian Bruns and Michael Stahel, two Partners and Portfolio Managers from LGT ILS Partners. The pair discussed the state of the reinsurance and insurance-linked securities (ILS) market, explaining that they are seeing positive shifts. These positive shifts are coming as the industry absorbs and digests the impacts of multiple years of high catastrophe losses, which at recent reinsurance renewal rounds have enabled LGT ILS Partners to improve its portfolios of risk. Bruns and Stahel also discussed the benefits of LGT ILS Partners' having its own rated reinsurance balance-sheet and how that adds efficiency to how they face the market. Finally, we discussed two hot topics for the ILS investment community, climate change and ESG. As ever, we’re looking at the development of the insurance-linked securities (ILS) market with one eye to the future, as is the way with Artemis’ ILS events. Event details can be found here: https://www.artemis.bm/ils-nyc-2022/

For this one of our sponsor showcase video interviews, for the upcoming Artemis ILS NYC 2022 conference (held April 22nd in New York City), we welcomed speakers from one of our Associate sponsors for the conference, global banking and broking company Truist. As ever, we’re looking at the development of the insurance-linked securities (ILS) market with one eye to the future, as is the way with Artemis’ ILS events. You can register for the event online here: https://www.artemis.bm/ils-nyc-2022/  Joining us for this conversation were Matt Gelber, Head of Insurance Investment Banking, and Andy Devries, Managing Director of Insurance Investment Banking, both from Truist Securities.  The pair discussed insurance industry capital trends, with a specific focus on how the insurance-linked securities (ILS) market has proven to be both disruptive and a source of efficient capital for ceding companies.  In addition, Gelber and Devries also explained some of the investor trends they see from their vantage point at Truist Securities and how ILS plays into those.  Truist Securities is a service mark of Truist Financial Corporation. All rights reserved. Truist Securities is the trade name for the corporate and investment banking services of Truist Financial Corporation and its subsidiaries. Securities and strategic advisory services are provided by Truist Securities, Inc., member FINRA and SIPC. Lending, financial risk management, and treasury management and payment services are offered by Truist Bank. Deposit products are offered by Truist Bank, Member FDIC.

For this one of our sponsor showcase video interviews, for the upcoming Artemis ILS NYC 2022 conference (held April 22nd in New York City), we welcomed speakers from one of our Associate sponsors for the conference, global law-firm Mayer Brown. As ever, we’re looking at the development of the insurance-linked securities (ILS) market with one eye to the future, as is the way with Artemis’ ILS events. You can register for the event online here: https://www.artemis.bm/ils-nyc-2022/  Joining us for this conversation were Steve Rooney, Partner and Co-leader of Mayer Brown's Global Insurance Industry Group; Ricky Spitzer and Colin Scgall, both Partner's in the Global Insurance Industry Group of the law firm.  The trio highlighted some trends they are watching in insurance-linked securities (ILS), in terms of still converging reinsurance and capital market activities, as well as in certain structures such as catastrophe bonds and reinsurance sidecars.  They also discussed the emergence of new domiciles for ILS issuance, such as Singapore, Hong Kong and London, highlighting what is working, and where there is more work to do.  Finally, the three legal executives explained some of the opportunities they see for the ILS market, including environmental, social and governance (ESG), new sponsor entrants and new uses of cat bonds to support humanitarian goals.

For this one of our sponsor showcase video interviews, for the upcoming Artemis ILS NYC 2022 conference (held April 22nd in New York City), we welcomed Tom Mackay, Senior Vice President and Vivian Ly, Client Relationship Manager, both from one of our Silver sponsors for the conference, global banking group HSBC.  As ever, we’re looking at the development of the insurance-linked securities (ILS) market with one eye to the future, as is the way with Artemis’ ILS events. You can register for the event online here: https://www.artemis.bm/ils-nyc-2022/  HSBC is one of the largest banking groups in the world and offers a range of services that are used within ILS transactions, not least escrow and corporate trust, as well as adjacently across the insurance and reinsurance world.  But with its global scale, it’s always interesting to hear the views of a major player in finance on a niche sector like insurance-linked securities.  Tom and Vivian discussed a range of issues with us, but one highlight of the interview is HSBC's expectation that the importance of environmental, social & governance (ESG) will grow for the ILS market and cascade through to the service provider level as well.

For this one of our sponsor showcase video interviews, for the upcoming Artemis ILS NYC 2022 conference (held April 22nd in New York City), we welcomed Stephan Ruoff, Global Head of Insurance-Linked Securities (ILS) and Mark Gibson, Head of Products and Solutions ILS, both from specialist investment manager Schroders Capital, one of our Gold sponsors for the conference. As ever, we’re looking at the development of the insurance-linked securities (ILS) market with one eye to the future, as is the way with Artemis’ ILS events. You can register for the event online here: https://www.artemis.bm/ils-nyc-2022/  Speaking to one of the key themes of our upcoming conference, Stephan Ruoff explained the need for the ILS industry to work on providing more predictable outcomes to its investors.  "As an industry we've not done too well over the last five years at creating predictable outcomes, so we need to change that and come back to things like underwriting, structuring, analytics and have these properly set, so that our investors can rely on these predictable outcomes," Ruoff said.  Ruoff explained that delivering on investor expectations is more important than growth for ILS managers.  Mark Gibson further explained the need for the ILS asset class to be increasingly accessible.  "That means providing diverse investment products or strategies for investors to tap into. We have a range of funds already, but we intend to keep broadening that range of funds, so that there's choice," Gibson said.  Listen to the full interview for the pair's thoughts on growth opportunities in the ILS market and the importance of ESG for the asset class.

For this one of our sponsor showcase video interviews, for the upcoming Artemis ILS NYC 2022 conference (held April 22nd in New York City), we welcomed Rob Hauff, Portfolio Manager at Vesttoo, one of our Gold sponsors for the conference. As ever, we’re looking at the development of the insurance-linked securities (ILS) market with one eye to the future, as is the way with Artemis’ ILS events. You can register for the event online here: https://www.artemis.bm/ils-nyc-2022/  Vesttoo is seeking to deliver investors a differentiated type and source of insurance-linked returns, with a non-catastrophe risk focus, innovative investor access points and the use of advanced technology to aid in modelling and structuring risks and investment opportunities.  Hauff joined us to discuss how Vesttoo is helping to unlock new categories of risk for investors, through its work in creating artificial intelligence risk models and the recently developed Insurance Linked Program, or ILP.  "Vesttoo's ultimate strategy is to become the marketplace where the need for reinsurance capacity marries up with the capital markets," Hauff explained.  Adding that, "I think it's possible that as the reach improves, with the introduction of lower-volatility instruments that we offer, we could generate more consistent returns over-time and reach a broader audience of investors."

For this one of our sponsor showcase video interviews, for the upcoming Artemis ILS NYC 2022 conference (held April 22nd in New York City), we welcomed Vincent Prabis, Managing Principal at Hiscox ILS, one of our Gold sponsors for the conference.  As ever, we’re looking at the development of the insurance-linked securities (ILS) market with one eye to the future, as is the way with Artemis’ ILS events. You can register for the event online here: https://www.artemis.bm/ils-nyc-2022/  Hiscox ILS is the dedicated insurance-linked securities (ILS) investment fund management unit of the global Hiscox re/insurance group and with broad access to originate business, as well as an established ILS fund franchise, Prabis explained that Hiscox ILS is targeting growth in the improved market conditions of 2022.  Prabis discussed market conditions and how Hiscox ILS is positioned after the key January reinsurance renewals.  He revealed that Hiscox ILS was successful in raising some new funds from its investors for 2022 and Prabis said that Hiscox ILS is aiming to grow through the rest of this year, while the market is so favourable.

For this one of our sponsor showcase video interviews, for the upcoming Artemis ILS NYC 2022 conference (held April 22nd in New York City), we welcomed Brittany Baker, Director of Technical Sales at CyberCube, one of our Gold sponsors for the conference.  As ever, we’re looking at the development of the insurance-linked securities (ILS) market with one eye to the future, as is the way with Artemis’ ILS events. You can register for the event online here: https://www.artemis.bm/ils-nyc-2022/  CyberCube is a specialist in cyber risk modelling and with this being an area of insurance and reinsurance that has often been described as capacity deprived, for numerous reasons, CyberCube has ambitions to help unlock ILS capacity to support cyber risk underwriting using its advanced technology and risk models.  Baker explained that education and transparency remain key, in encouraging new capital sources into the cyber insurance and reinsurance market.  "As insurance groups are able to better understand them a more clear narrative will emerge and it will be easier to demonstrate, even to those who are not cyber security experts. I think that will allow us to bridge the gap between the ILS investor base and the insurance industry," she explained.

For this one of our sponsor showcase video interviews, for the upcoming Artemis ILS NYC 2022 conference (held April 22nd in New York City), we welcomed senior executives from major global re/insurer AXIS Capital, one of our Gold sponsors for the conference. Joining us were: Ann Haugh, President of Global Property, Reinsurance; Katie Partington, Chief Underwriting Officer, Reinsurance; and Chris Caponigro, Global Head of AXIS ILS. As ever, we’re looking at the development of the insurance-linked securities (ILS) market with one eye to the future, as is the way with Artemis’ ILS events. You can register for the event online here: https://www.artemis.bm/ils-nyc-2022/  We discussed how AXIS Capital has been utilising third-party capital and partnering with investors within its underwriting operations and what the executives foresee for the future use of ILS at the company.  AXIS Capital has been leveraging third-party capital within its underwriting business for more than a decade, and the unit dealing with this was rebranded AXIS ILS last year and has been staffing up ever since, suggesting a growing focus.  The company is open to partnering with insurance-linked securities (ILS) investors on a wide-range of risks and believes all of its portfolios of insurance and reinsurance risk have the potential to be attractive to investors.

For this one of our sponsor showcase video interviews, for the upcoming Artemis ILS NYC 2022 conference (held April 22nd in New York City), we welcomed Lorenzo Volpi, Managing Partner at specialist ILS and reinsurance investment manager Leadenhall Capital Partners, one of our Gold sponsors for the conference. As ever, we’re looking at the development of the insurance-linked securities (ILS) market with one eye to the future, as is the way with Artemis’ ILS events. You can register for the event online here: https://www.artemis.bm/ils-nyc-2022/  Volpi provided an update on investor trends in the insurance-linked securities (ILS) space, explaining that after a series of catastrophe losses in 2021, investors have become increasingly curious and want to understand how ILS fund managers, like Leadenhall, are applying lessons learned.  In addition, investors are seeking to understand how ILS managers are positioning themselves to take advantage of opportunities in the current reinsurance market environment.  While other key investor trends are, as you might expect, climate change and climate risk, as well as environmental, social and governance (ESG) issues.  "Ultimately investors welcome client-servicing intimacy and an open and transparent dialogue, because the investment long-term benefits should be obvious to everyone and you don't want to surprise them, of course," Volpi said in the interview.

For this one of our sponsor showcase video interviews, for the upcoming Artemis ILS NYC 2022 conference (held April 22nd in New York City), we welcomed Thomas Nuth, the Vice President of Marketing at DeNexus, one of our Bronze sponsors for the conference.  DeNexus is a specialist provider of software for cyber risk quantification and its DeRISK Insurance product enables quantification of the cyber risk of industrial enterprise clients and client portfolios for underwriters, helping reinsurers and ILS investors gain visibility and understanding of cyber risks they may face.  Thomas explained the DeNexus approach to cyber and in particular what its DeRISK Insurance product offers to insurers, reinsurers and ILS investors looking to underwrite or allocate capital to cyber risks.  He also went on to provide detailed thoughts on some of the threat vectors the insurance, reinsurance and ultimately ILS investor markets may face, as well as how DeNexus is developing its tools to help risk markets make more sense of cyber exposure and threats.

For this one of our sponsor showcase video interviews, for the upcoming Artemis ILS NYC 2022 conference (held April 22nd in New York City), we welcomed Tom Johansmeyer, Head of PCS, part of the Verisk group of companies, and our Headline sponsor for the event.  As ever, we’re looking at the development of the insurance-linked securities (ILS) market with one eye to the future, as is the way with Artemis’ ILS events.  To that end, Tom had some particularly interesting and highly relevant views to share on political violence and also cyber terrorism, two areas of the insurance and reinsurance market that are not yet staple perils for insurance-linked securities (ILS) investors, but that Tom believes could become so in time.  In particular, Tom believes that recent trends are driving increasing risks of political violence, unrest and also cyber attacks, making the development of additional risk capital sources and new risk transfer products to address these exposures increasingly important.

In this episode of the Artemis.bm podcast we review the record year of catastrophe bond issuance that was seen in 2021 and comment on the twenty-five year anniversary of a landmark transaction from late 1996. We also discuss the important role insurance-linked securities (ILS) play as a form of reinsurance capital structure, with the cat bond increasingly a key source of reinsurance, retrocession and importantly insurance capacity for a growing base of sponsors. We also summarise the changes we've made to help you track catastrophe bond and ILS market activity more accurately, explaining decisions taken to enhance our charts and data service for you. Finally, we look ahead to 2022 and discuss some of the potential catalysts that could turn this year into another record-setting one for the catastrophe bond market.

For our latest Artemis Live interview we wanted to understand how the industry loss from Hurricane Ida has been developing and explore the complexities in the reconstruction and recovery that could impact just how high the insurance and reinsurance market loss could rise.  Who better to do that with than executives from Property Claim Services (PCS), a division of Verisk, so we were joined by Tom Johansmeyer, Head of PCS and Ted Gregory, Director of Operations, PCS and ISO Claims Analytics for this video interview.  Estimates for the industry loss from Hurricane Ida still range from as low as $25 billion to as high as $40 billion, sometimes above, so it's clear at this stage there is no consensus.  In order for the market to really understand what’s going on, it’s important to look at the facts on the ground and the claims data flowing through the market from underwriting companies.  Hence, our discussion with PCS in this interview hopes to provide some more detail as to what's being seen on the ground in Louisiana, as well as further afield and how that will potentially influence the continued development of losses from Hurricane Ida.  Listen to this episode to learn more about the on-the-ground situation in Louisiana after Hurricane Ida, as well as to better understand some of the complexities that may drive loss creep and claims amplification.

Our latest Artemis Live video interview saw us exploring the importance of climate risk models in the management of portfolios of reinsurance and insurance-linked securities (ILS), with senior executives from Aeolus Capital Management.  Aeolus' Head of Research, Dr. Pete Dailey, and Partner, and Chief Analytics Officer Frank Fischer, joined us to discuss the importance of climate models in their work and how these tools are improving.  We also explored how Aeolus is leveraging climate modelling, data, and analytics, to inform its portfolio construction and management, asking Dailey and Fischer how they see the use of climate inputs to ILS decision-making evolving.  Taking into account climate change related factors in how reinsurance-related risks are modelled, assessed and selected for portfolios, is deeply integrated into the processes followed by Aeolus.  It's also critical to explain how climate is factored into decision-making, when it comes to having conversations with ILS investors, Dailey and Fischer explained.

Recently we hosted a live webcast in association with Genpact, on the use of technology within the reinsurance space and the importance of data. The insightful discussion explored the industry’s current use of technology and ability to adopt new processes, with a view to what this might mean for the future of the reinsurance market as it looks to progress and innovate. Our panellists for the webcast were from Genpact, Swiss Re, Google and Tremor Technologies and they all agreed that the reinsurance industry's data and tech maturity is increasing, but that there is a lot more to be done. “If I was to think about where the industry is and how it has leveraged the opportunities, I think it’s a little bit of a mixed bag, in my view,” said Sameer Dewan, Global Business and Digital Transformation Leader, Insurance, Genpact. One of the positives, according to Dewan, is that the reinsurance industry in particular has made great strides with its catastrophe risk modelling by leveraging new data sets extensively, and evolving its understanding of natural hazards. Dewan also noted that solid progress is being made around how the market manages its data and governance, although warned that there’s still a long way to go here. “What I mean by that, is it’s not just data within the organization that they have across multiple systems, both manual and some more automated processes, but also how data is managed in the ecosystem and how the data transfer plays out. I think that’s a huge opportunity,” he said. The second piece, he continued, is the under investment in reinsurance core technology. “There are technologies in play, but I don’t think they necessarily meet the needs of the complexities that we have to deal with today. A lot of the work is still performed manually. Having said that, I think we are at a tipping point,” said Dewan.

For our latest interview, we were joined by Tom Johansmeyer, Head of PCS to discuss the issue of cyber risk and ask the question, why isn't it a bigger exposure in the insurance-linked securities (ILS) market?  For almost a decade, the subject of cyber insurance-linked securities (ILS), cyber catastrophe bonds and the ILS fund market as provider of cyber reinsurance, has been a topic of conversation at industry events around the world, our own included.  But years later, the ILS market's ventures in cyber risk remain relatively limited, to some bespoke transactions and exposure picked up silently from other lines of business. Why is that?  Tom Johansmeyer and I explored some of the reasons behind this. Asking questions such as does the ILS market even want cyber risk? Is a lack of data, risk models and industry loss events still a limiting factor? How big an issue are ransomware losses right now? What could catalyse the need for more risk capital? And, why is cyber reinsurance and retro so dysfunctional right now.

We recently hosted a webcast in partnership with Vesttoo, where the discussion focused on innovative approaches to insurance and reinsurance linked investments.  Our expert panellists discussed opportunities for investors to access high frequency, low severity insurance asset classes.  Viewers heard how the market for insurance and reinsurance linked investments continues to develop, with new routes becoming available to help investors access what is an expanding asset class.  Also discussed, were thoughts around how innovative approaches, such as pooling or asset-based collateralization, can enable asset managers to buy into these risks, earning spread from the uncorrelated risk of non-catastrophe insurance and reinsurance premiums on top of current yields.  Our panel guests included: Yaniv Bertele, Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of Vesttoo; Mattias Eng, Head of Insurance Solutions, Securis Investment Partners LLP; Hedwige Nuyens, Managing Director, International Banking Federation; and Sam Gaynor, Co-Head Financial Services Practice, Altamont Capital Partners.  Our industry experts agreed that the low volatility and projectable cash flows offered by high frequency, low severity perils in areas such as casualty insurance or reinsurance, are increasingly gaining attention from more experienced investors looking for relatively uncorrelated returns and higher yields.

We were recently joined by Christian Mumenthaler, Chief Executive Officer of one of the world's largest reinsurance company's Swiss Re, who discussed the state of the market, his outlook, the insurance-linked securities (ILS) market and what his priorities are for 2022 in this interview.  On reinsurance market pricing, Mumenthaler told us, "I’m really pleased that the industry overall has taken the right steps and we’re back into an acceptable area." But he warned of the need for rate adequacy to persist across reinsurance, saying that climate risks suggest further rate increases will be necessary.  Mumenthaler also explained how Swiss Re's alternative capital and insurance-linked securities (ILS) business is developing, highlighting the importance of this to the company.  He said that he expects more opportunities to deploy alternative capital overtime, with the capital markets an important partner for the reinsurance company he leads.  The Swiss Re CEO is bullish on opportunities for the capital markets to assist in narrowing natural catastrophe protection gaps and also to provide risk capital to support challenging areas of insurance coverage, such as event cancellation.

At our recent virtual ILS Asia 2021 conference we held a panel discussion focused on accessing new and diversifying sources of risk from the Asia region. Much of the ILS market is still focused on catastrophe risks, being the pre-dominant component of the insurance-linked securities (ILS) market. But increasingly there is appetite among investors for more, while insurers and reinsurers are keen to access efficient risk capital for a much broader set of risks. And that holds true in Asia Pacific as much as anywhere else. So, this panel discussion is focused on the opportunity in non-catastrophe risks in Asia, why ILS capital may be well suited to some of these and how the market can develop over-time into something attractive and diversifying, while making useful risk capital available to cedents. Speakers explained that some of the advantages of participating in non-cat ILS, for investors, includes being able to hedge some of the risk exposure linked with market risk and cat dominant portfolios. While also highlighting some unique challenges facing the region, including changing regulations and demographics which can differ from country-to-country. Speakers also acknowledged that there is a long-way to go for the Asian market to embrace ILS capital across the risk spectrum, but that opportunities exist to begin making headway.

Paul Schultz, CEO of Aon Securities, joined us for our recent ILS Asia 2021 conference and gave a keynote speech on ILS market developments across the Asia Pacific region. Schultz explained that while Singapore is now an active hub for catastrophe bonds and insurance-linked securities (ILS) and with Hong Kong primed to issue its first deal this year as well, regional sponsor participation can help to ensure their sustainability as ILS domiciles. For an ILS domicile to be successful, Schultz highlighted the need for a strong regulatory framework and also the need for strong regional service providers. Schultz explained that at Aon Securities, "We think that the growth over the last couple of years has been substantial and we’re excited about what that really means for the sustainability of Singapore and ultimately Hong Kong into the region.” “Hong Kong, we really believe will help facilitate bringing more Chinese issuers, or sponsors to market. We’re really excited about that. Obviously there’s been some coverage in the press already around some anticipated transactions that will be facilitated using Hong Kong. “We’re excited about that just being part of the industry. And, we believe that, again, over time, the flexibility that comes through either Singapore or soon to be Hong Kong, we think will actually enable future issuance in the region, and allow for future growth,” said Schultz.

On the final day of our recent ILS Asia 2021 event the audience was treated to an insightful discussion on the Asian catastrophe bond and ILS market from Cory Anger of GC Securities. With Hong Kong now established as a regulated domicile for insurance-linked securities (ILS) and catastrophe bonds, there could be several issuances out of the region by the end of 2021, according to Cory Anger. “Both the Chinese regulator and the Hong Kong Insurance Authority have been very supportive of sponsors, using a Hong Kong Special Purpose reinsurer for an ILS deal, whether it’s through the grant scheme, whether it’s working them through the regulatory approval process,” said Anger. As is the case in Singapore, in order to stimulate deal-flow out of Hong Kong the regulator has introduced a grant scheme which covers some of the costs of issuing a cat bond out of the region. This approach has been successful in Singapore with the number of issuances growing year-on-year, and Anger feels that by offering this incentive, Hong Kong has shown that it wants to make it a success. “I think they’re starting first with companies that haven’t yet brought as much risk to the ILS market, which is Chinese insurers and reinsurers. I think that that’s particularly exciting, because that’s really going to expand Asia risks that are available to the ILS market. “I think it’s very exciting what they’re doing and in particularly supporting China to be ceding risk outwards, out of the country. It will help risk takers understand the risk better, but also should be promoting more capital support in the Asia Pacific region, being sourced from the ILS market,” said Anger.

At our recent insurance-linked securities (ILS) conference for the Asia region, Morton Lane, of consultancy Lane Financial LLC, gave a keynote speech that examined 20 years of cat bond market performance and asked whether investors got what they had expected from it. Morton Lane's keynote looked at whether the performance of catastrophe bonds was worth the risk assumed and concluded that indeed investors did achieve the returns you would have expected from the advertised risk metrics of the deals offered in the period. During a Q&A at the end of his keynote, Lane also discussed the need for greater transparency in the insurance-linked securities (ILS) market, particularly for catastrophe bonds. “I’m lucky to have access to this data," he said. "I don’t think other people do. I think if they did, they could do better and more analysis, and come to better or more informed conclusions." "I think if there was more transparency the market would be more innovative because they could look at their experience. And, so, I know that the SEC considers these to be private market deals; they’re 144A deals. “I think it’s time that the SEC considers this market, which is now maturing fast, to be a public market so that other people can do this sort of analysis and come to these sorts of conclusions."

This session from our recent insurance-linked securities conference for the Asia region featured William Ho, CEO of MS Amlin Asia Pacific, who joined us to discuss the reinsurance market in the region and his firms use of ILS capital. Ho explained the Asia Pacific reinsurance landscape and the rate environment, identifying opportunities and initiatives underway to expand coverage to greater numbers. The capital markets have a key role to play here, as supportive reinsurance capacity to help Asia Pacific insurers grow and expand their portfolios. Insurance linked securities, from catastrophe bonds to sidecars, are useful tools and education about them is growing in the region. Ho discussed MS Amlin's own use of a reinsurance sidecar, which was the first ever sidecar transaction to feature solely Asian property catastrophe risks.

At our recent ILS Asia event we convened three experienced pension fund investors, from PGGM, Future Fund of Australia and the Healthcare of Ontario Pension Plan (HOOPP), who discussed key and timely issues of consideration related to their allocations to the insurance-linked securities (ILS) asset class. All of these pension investors have experience working with leading ILS investment managers and allocating across catastrophe bonds and a range of other reinsurance linked assets. Topics we discussed included, how the ILS asset class has adapted to the new world thrust upon it by the pandemic, climate change and how that factors into the industry's risk taking, the importance of modelling, challenges with social inflation, and how collateral is managed in reinsurance investment deals. The investors gave candid opinions on what it means to invest in ILS and reinsurance, as well as any concerns they have over the state of the industry right now.

During our recent ILS Asia event we interviewed two experts from Securis Investment Partners about the importance of investor communications, especially in relation to Asian perils & climate risk. Yuko Hoshino, Co-head of Global Investor Relations and Paul Wilson, Head of Non-Life Analytics, both from Securis Investment Partners LLP, gave an overview of the Asian ILS investor base and explored the experience of investors in the region after some challenging loss years. The impact of Japanese typhoon Jebi was a focus of the session and Hoshino explained that when the storm arrived in September of 2018, even local people did not expect that it would become the largest loss event in Japanese insurance history. For Securis, Hoshino explained that Jebi was more impactful for aggregate deals since the loss creep followed other 2018 events, including Hurricane Michael and wildfires. According to Hoshino, in the aftermath of Jebi, investors specifically asked questions around issues such as modelling for Japan typhoons, flood risk, the setting of side pockets and how losses would be reserved for. Wilson went on to explain that when he speaks with investors, he always looks to separate the two aspects of the use of the catastrophe models. The pair also explained how they approach investor discussions about key issues such as climate change, both from the investment and science sides of the equation.

At our recent ILS Asia 2021 event, a panel of experienced insurance-linked securities (ILS) professionals discussed investment management issues with a view to the Asian marketplace. In spite of the pandemic and the inability to travel, the panellists noted that through the use of technology it’s still possible to build relationships with prospective investors and overall, developments in the ILS industry continue to be positive. Panellists discuss the appetite for ILS and reinsurance linked investments among the Asian investor community and the fact it persists. They also discussed the importance of communication around things like loss creep and climate change, especially when considering new investors in the Asia region. Building partnership with investors in ILS was seen as key by the panellists, given the need to educate and keep communication around reinsurance loss events and also the vagaries of how the ILS structures themselves work.

This podcast episode features an interview with Timothy Yip, Executive Director at ILS Advisers, an insurance-linked securities focused advisory and investment management arm of HSZ Group. Yip joined us to discuss the investor landscape in Asia and how that is reflected in the insurance-linked securities (ILS) space. There's a clear appetite for diversifying sources of return, as we see among the global institutional investor base, so reinsurance is definitely relevant as an asset class. But the Asia region investor base has differing levels of maturity and education and Tim Yip took us through how he looks at different countries in the region and their chances of allocating to the ILS and reinsurance linked asset class. Yip provided an overview of the history and maturity of ILS as an asset class in the Asia region, as places like Singapore and Hong Kong look to position themselves as hubs for risk transfer business, including ILS. Of course, pension funds in both Japan and South Korea have been allocating to ILS for some time now, while Singapore has sovereign wealth investors that participate in the sector.  According to Yip, these areas in Asia and also if you expand to Asia Pacific and include Australia, have been the first to embrace the asset class because of the fact their institutional market size is just so much bigger.

At our recent ILS Asia 2021 conference, Shevawn Barder, CEO of AM RE Syndicate gave an excellent keynote speech on opportunities for ILS funds and investors to partner with businesses like her own to access the returns of US specialty business. The keynote speech is then followed by a Q&A with Artemis editor Steve Evans, in which the subject was explored more deeply. Barder explained why the US specialty lines opportunity should be attractive to investors and also reinsurers from the Asia region, as well as the rest of the world. She called it an “opportunity for Asian reinsurers investors and capital providers to tap into the US primary market.” She explains how the US program segment of the insurance market works, saying that the MGA model has become increasingly sophisticated and that “they have a very specialised and focused business model, and a very low cost infrastructure,” making them ideal for capital partners to work with and “an effective way to access the primary US market.” Barder also explains how working with an MGA partner, such as a reinsurance intermediary like AM RE Syndicate, means investors and reinsurers can put their capital behind an origination focused underwriting partner, to gain access to business they may not otherwise find it easy to source.

Our recent ILS Asia 2021 conference featured a panel discussion where experts explored the emerging insurance-linked securities (ILS) platform in Hong Kong and asked what considerations there may be for sponsors of or investors in catastrophe bonds and other ILS. Thanks to the efforts of Singapore and more recently Hong Kong, there’s an exciting and growing opportunity for the insurance-linked securities (ILS) sector to play a meaningful role in the Asia region, according to these industry experts. Aided by its ILS grant scheme, Singapore has witnessed a surge in cat bond issuance over the past 12 months or so. Investor interest in ILS is high and as the Asia region looks to capture some of the demand, Hong Kong is also positioning itself to become a hub for ILS business. With interest in the asset class heightened, our panellists shared their thoughts on what this might mean for the ILS market in Asia, and also for issuances in Hong Kong. The panel featured: Stefan Kräuchi, Founder, ILS Advisers an ILS fund manager and investment adviser based in Asia; Andy Souter, Co-Head of P&C at Hong Kong based reinsurer, Peak Re; Simon Lam, Executive Director, General Business, Hong Kong Insurance Authority; and Ricky Spitzer, Partner at global law firm Mayer Brown.

This episode of our podcast features an interview with Simon Lam, Executive Director, General Business at the Hong Kong Insurance Authority, who joined our latest event, ILS Asia 2021 to discuss Hong Kong's plans for its new insurance-linked securities platform. Hong Kong already has an established insurance and reinsurance market, while its legislative preparations for ILS were completed at the beginning of 2021. Since then the Insurance Authority has been building out its licensing and supervision infrastructure, with the support of an ILS working group, including notable ILS market players, Mr. Lam explained to the ILS Asia 2021 audience. “As we all know, being efficient in licensing is very, very important for ILS issuers,” he explained. Saying that “We also started an ILS capacity building exercise for staff of the Insurance Authority, through the engagement of a professional ILS consultant.” “The final piece was when the pilot ILS grant scheme was launched by the Hong Kong government in May,” Lam continued, saying that, “If you ask me where are we now, I would say that we are 99% ready for the first issuance.” At the same time Hong Kong has been engaging with potential sponsors of insurance-linked securities (ILS) arrangements, to generate initial deal-flow interest. Mr. Lam told our conference audience that, “In parallel, we are soliciting support from potential sponsors and I’m pleased to advise that we are already working on the first cat bond and hopefully, if all things go well, we will have the first ILS issue out of Hong Kong within this year.” The panel session mentioned at the end will be included in a later podcast episode.

The catastrophe bond market is on-track to break multiple records after a particularly busy second-quarter of 2021. Activity in the catastrophe bond and related insurance-linked securities (ILS) market accelerated again in the second-quarter of 2021, with the three-months seeing an incredible $8.5 billion of new risk capital come to market, according to the latest report and data from Artemis. Q2 2021 has set a new quarterly record for issuance, at $8.5 billion. This staggering level of new reinsurance and retrocession risk capital was supplied through 30 transactions consisting of 66 tranches of notes. Of the record breaking Q2 issuance total, a significant almost $6 billion, or more than 70%, covered property catastrophe risks. Our data shows that this is behind only Q2 2017, a period in which a huge $6.4 billion of quarterly issuance covered catastrophe risks. However, as at the end of H1 2021, cat risk issuance has reached a new high of more than $8.5 billion for the first six months of this year, which is slightly higher than the record for property cat bonds issued in the first-half previously set in H1 2017. Year-on-year, cat bond and ILS issuance increased by approximately $4.87 billion, ensuring that for the first time ever, H1 issuance has surpassed the $10 billion mark. In fact, combined with robust investor demand for reinsurance-linked returns and sponsor appetite for protection in Q1, the $8.5 billion of issuance witnessed in Q2 now takes H1 2021 total issuance of catastrophe bonds and related insurance-linked securities (ILS) to a massive $13.12 billion. To put this into context, more than $13 billion of issuance at the halfway stage of the year means that 2021 is already the third most active full-year on record, behind only the $16.4 billion and $13.9 billion recorded in 2020 and 2018, respectively. As demand for collateralized reinsurance persists and the cat bond market offers particularly attractive pricing conditions, we expect issuance to remain solid through the full-year.

For our latest Artemis Live interview we wanted to dive into a hot topic, inflationary pressures, material prices and labour costs and how this could play into catastrophe claims for the insurance, reinsurance and insurance-linked securities (ILS) industry in 2021.  Inflation is big news currently, with some economists expecting a sustained period of price increases and inflationary pressures around the world.  There are several factors causing this, some specific to different locations and regions of the world.  But for the insurance, reinsurance and insurance-linked securities (ILS) market, materials, labour and other costs have in some cases risen significantly, which has ramifications for catastrophe events and possible loss amplification to claims.  To help me dive deeper into this issue, I spoke with two senior Verisk Analytics executives with years of experience on the claims-side of the market, Mike Fulton, President of Xactware and Tom Johansmeyer, Head of PCS.  Fulton explained the current situation, "We're in new territory. This has not happened in the past, even in my thirty years in the business. "We're seeing inflation in several areas, some of that is significant and we certainly expect additional inflationary growth in both material and labour for the near-term."  Johansmeyer explained that this is a particularly hot-topic for the industry at this time, "It's interesting, because we've been getting calls about this for almost a year now."  He advised market participants ensure they have the access to data that's required to help in understanding how inflationary pressures could play into catastrophe claims.  "It's important to look at PCS alongside Xactware, because we'll (PCS) tell you what the cat is doing, we'll help you understand what your portfolio is doing. But as you dig into that, it's the granularity that you see with Xactware, which is literally as close to the risk as you can get, that provides those sorts of insights."  This interview features a discussion of what these inflationary pressures mean and how reinsurance and ILS market participants may deal with the effects of it, including hedging, retrocession and other portfolio management opportunities.

For our latest Artemis Live interview we were joined by two Jeff Waters and Ben Brookes from catastrophe risk modeller RMS, to discuss the latest update to the RMS North Atlantic hurricane model and how the insurance-linked securities (ILS) market should think about this evolution in modelling hurricane risk.  RMS has recently launched an updated version of its North Atlantic hurricane risk model, with Version 21 containing some changes that are important for reinsurance and insurance-linked securities (ILS) market participants to understand, not least for the investor side of ILS and catastrophe bonds.  Jeff Waters, Meteorologist and Senior Product Manager at RMS and Ben Brookes, VP, Consulting Services at RMS joined us for the discussion.  With the 2021 Atlantic hurricane season now upon us, their explanation of the updates to the hurricane model and how ILS fund managers and investors should think about this, is valuable preparation for the storm season ahead.  Waters explained why the updates are important, “With Version 21 of our Atlantic hurricane models, we really continued to evolve the science of hurricane risk modeling.  “Over the years we’ve introduced various enhancement, such as multiple views of event frequencies, a very comprehensive storm surge modelling framework. All those key components remain, we’ve just enhanced them with the latest scientific understanding of the hurricane risk landscape. “A lot of that in Version 21 is informed by new data and learnings from recent impactful seasons, including $6 billion in new claims data.”  Brookes discussed at a high-level how capital market investors and those in the ILS market, such as fund managers and collateralized reinsurance players, should think about the updated model.  “In Version 21, our reference view of risk generally yields fairly small changes for ILS, versus the prior version. We’ve made some tweaks to the sets of hurricane rates that we have based on the data from the last couple of seasons, and those changes are relatively small overall,” Brookes said. Continuing to explain, “We’re also updating our industry exposure database as part of Version 21. The changes for that again are relatively small to bring the exposure in line with the latest growth trends. So the changes in the baseline views, if you like, are relatively muted.  “I think what’s more interesting is the impact and how we’re able to inform understanding of key uncertainties. I expect fund managers might want to think about how they’re pricing risk if the roof replacement rules are strictly followed, because those can have a fairly meaningful impact on loss.”

During a recent Artemis Live webcast, industry experts argued that utilizing technology will be critical in enabling the reinsurance and alternative capital markets, or ILS sector, to help hedge pandemic risk using parametric solutions. The event was sponsored by Vesttoo, a specialist in risk modeling and alternative risk transfer for the Life and P&C insurance markets, and which was represented by CEO Yaniv Bertele. Also present on the panel were James Potter, CEO of Rokstone Underwriting, Luca Tres, Head of Strategic Risk & Capital Life Solutions, EMEA at Guy Carpenter, and David Bearman, CEO of Aventum Group. As a backdrop to this discussion, recent renewals have seen insurance and reinsurance players scramble to exclude pandemic risks from their books, due to the size and systemic nature of the peril, plus the unintended nature of the cover they have in many cases found themselves on the hook for. But Bertele argued that more sophisticated utilization of technology could help the capital markets to get a handle on pandemic risk, and “bridge the gap” between the now-familiar territory of catastrophe risk and some of the more complex long-tail risks. The panel discusses the way parametric triggers could be used to construct pandemic hedges for P&C insurance and reinsurance risk, as well as the potential challenges in transacting in this while a global pandemic is ongoing.

For our latest Artemis Live interview we were joined by Tom Johansmeyer, Head of PCS, to discuss the insurance-linked securities (ILS) market's appetite to invest in strike, riot & civil commotion (SRCC) or political violence related risks.  The discussion came about because of a recent piece of work undertaken by Tom and his team, in which they polled the insurance-linked securities (ILS) market for its view on political violence as a class of business, including strike, riot and civil commotion (or SRCC) risks.  Tom and his team at PCS surveyed some 60% of the ILS fund market, by assets under management, equating to around 15 firms, to find out what ILS managers themselves think about SRCC or political violence risks and what it might take to make it a class of business they want to underwrite, as well as what if anything might stop them from doing so.  While ILS fund mandates can be very prescriptive and so include these kinds of risks in some cases, they aren't the main blocker. Instead it seems price and structure are the main issues blocking ILS funds from embracing these kinds of risks within their portfolios, as there just aren't the deals coming to market, at pricing that would be attractive, or structured in a way that complements on ILS investment strategy it seems.  But Johansmeyer believes there's a need for more capacity, to enable the insurance and reinsurance market for SRCC and other kinds of political violence to function better, with a role for ILS funds in providing some of that, likely on a retrocessional basis to begin.

Interest in parametric risk transfer and insurance is on the rise as the immediacy and availability of data improves and new types of market participants enter the fray, suggesting growth is on the horizon, according to industry experts. We recently held an Artemis Live webcast, titled The Power of Parametric Solutions for Climate Resilience, featuring senior leaders from across the weather risk management and re/insurance space who discussed the expanding parametrics industry. In partnership with the Weather Risk Management Association and supported by our kind sponsor Descartes Underwriting, this Artemis Live webcast featured Julian Roberts, Managing Director, Risk & Analytics, ‎Willis Towers Watson; Alain Lagesse, Director Group Risk Management, LVMH; Daniel Vetter, Head of North America, Descartes Underwriting; and David Whitehead, Co-CEO, Speedwell Weather. Today, parametric risk transfer adoption is accelerating apace, as more granular and abundant data, combined with technology and an increasing number of capacity providers looking to underwrite risk on a parametric basis, collide to heighten the availability of a growing parametric solution set. Against this backdrop, speakers explained that interest in parametric insurance and risk transfer is growing on the back of the availability of data. From the buyers side, Alain Lagesse, Director Group Risk Management, LVMH, highlighted three main reasons, or competitive advantages, that parametrics have over traditional insurance solutions.

James Vickers, Chairman of Willis Re International, part of the global reinsurance broking unit of Willis Towers Watson, joined us to discuss global reinsurance market conditions and opportunities.  In this interview, James Vickers discusses how Willis Re's reinsurance clients are finding market conditions in the context of some steady firming seen across recent renewal seasons.  We discussed global reinsurance capital levels and why, despite the industry being well-capitalised and having bounced back strongly from the pandemic, we continue to see positive rate momentum.  James explained some of the underlying features of reinsurance performance at this time, explaining the challenges that reinsurers face in a low interest rate world. As well as the need for underwriting returns to improve further, particularly when some reinsurers have new capital investors to satisfy at this time.  We also discussed the recent performance of the insurance-linked securities (ILS) market and James explained that he feels ILS funds and investors have learned a lot after some more challenging years, which he feels means the discipline being seen in ILS capital deployment is set to continue.  Finally, James shared his market outlook, saying that he sees no reason for firming rates not to continue at this time.

In this episode we review some of the key facts related to catastrophe bond and related insurance-linked securities (ILS) issuance in the first-quarter of 2021. Catastrophe bond and related ILS issuance amounted to $4.63bn as at the end of Q1, making it the third time in the past four years that Q1 issuance has surpassed the $4bn mark. Although down on the record-breaking $5bn issued in the opening quarter of last year, issuance still came in almost $2bn above the ten-year average for the period.  The impressive volume of new risk capital issued in the period came from 27 transactions comprised of 44 tranches of notes. Of this, a significant 22 transactions with a combined value of roughly $2.8bn covered catastrophe risks, which accounts for over 60% of issuance. Mortgage ILS issuance was also strong in the quarter, while the volume of private deals and non-cat ILS also increased year-on-year.  In 2021, the majority of first-quarter issuance came from repeat sponsors, including a mix of regular market participants and others returning for just their second or third time in the market’s history. First time sponsors this year included Universal (UPCIC) and the Danish Red Cross. 

For our latest Artemis Live interview we wanted to take a deep-dive into into the recent severe winter weather and deep freeze event that affected a significant proportion of the United States in February, hitting Texas particularly hard.  Early estimates suggested the potential for the insurance and reinsurance market, including insurance-linked securities (ILS) funds, to face losses of $15bn to $20bn.  Over the last couple of weeks estimates have been coming down slightly, as greater clarity on the losses emerged, particularly with some reporting from the major nationwide insurance carriers most exposed in Texas.  To help me dive deeper into the insurance claims environment related to this event, we invited two senior Verisk Analytics execs with years of experience on the claims-side of the market, Mike Fulton, President of Xactware and Tom Johansmeyer, Head of PCS to this interview.  The pair explained why the winter storm and freezing weather does not seem to be driving an insurance and reinsurance industry loss as high as early predictions had suggested.  But Fulton of Xactware also explained the scale of the claims deluge his firm's systems saw coming in, with huge numbers of claims seen flowing from Texas and the surrounding area.  Fulton said that a typical February might see around 400,000 claims in Xactware's systems from across the US, but in 2021 the company saw nearly a million claims assignments logged.  "More than half of those (claims) being from freezing weather and burst pipes," Fulton explained. "Roughly 30% of those 1 million claims, were due to what we believe to be freeze claims in Texas alone.  "So the impact when comparing to a normal year, for the personal lines market, was really significant."  We also discussed business interruption and the Johansmeyer of PCS said that the BI component of this winter storm loss hasn't manifested to the degree some feared, although some BI claims are anticipated.

This episode features a discussion exploring the use of technology within insurance and reinsurance markets, in particular how reinsurance outcomes can be improved for ceding companies with the use of tech.  This was a session from our Prospectus 2021 event, the new annual reinsurance and insurance-linked securities (ILS) conference brought to you by Artemis in collaboration with sister title Reinsurance News in November 2020.  Panellists included Sean Bourgeois, Founder & CEO, Tremor Technologies, Inc., Claude Yoder, Head of Analytics, Lockton Re, and Carol Pierce, Senior Director, Insurance, Kroll Bond Rating Agency (KBRA).  The trio of industry specialists emphasised that while progress is being made, the industry’s ability to leverage advanced technology and analytics for improvements remains in its infancy, suggesting there’s much more to come.  Later in the session, the topic of standardisation was raised and specifically, whether heightened standardisation as a result of tech-driven risk transfer solutions means that eventually, we get to a point where capital markets investors can participate more readily.  Sean Bourgeois of Tremor explained the level of sophistication of many players in the insurance and reinsurance space and the distinct opportunity in making it easier for them to access capital, or allocate to risk, in its current as well as future perhaps more standardised forms.  Technology can do a lot for the reinsurance market in its current guise and suite of products, before even considering broader standardisation, he explained.

For our latest Artemis Live video interview we spoke with specialist insurance-linked securities (ILS) fund manager Leadenhall Capital Partners' CEO Luca Albertini and CUO Jillian Williams, who gave us an update on their view on the ILS and reinsurance market and also explained more about environmental, social and governance (ESG) activities at the firm.  We began by discussing the state of the market and Chief Executive Officer of Leadenhall Luca Albertini explained that, in January, property catastrophe pricing improved and importantly, so too did terms.  Albertini also highlighted the life ILS side, where his firm provides reinsurance and financing capital to life insurers and reinsurers, saying that there could be an opportunity emerging here related to the COVID-19 pandemic.  "We believe that there will be a higher interest in pandemic cover and life cover in general, so something that can be structured to meet this additional appetite is something clearly we are working on and the industry is working on," Albertini explained.  He cited the "potential for rekindling interest on a sector like pandemic," which he said for capital market players has been in slow decline.  Williams discussed the upcoming reinsurance renewals, saying that, "The 1/4's have been positive and the Japanese renewals have again shown a positive discussion on rate and good interaction between clients and brokers on structures and what they need for them, as well as what we're able to do in the market."  However, Williams noted that looking ahead to the mid-year renewals, the recent winter storm Uri has focused attention on so-called secondary perils again and has also heightened uncertainty around reinsurance renewal timings.  The interview went on to explore environmental, social and governance (ESG) activities at Leadenhall Capital Partners and the pairs thoughts on what more the ILS industry needs to do so it can ensure it is ready to capitalise on investor preference and demand.

For our latest Artemis Live interview we spoke with James Poole, Co-founder and Managing Directory of AGILE Risk Partners, who explained the concept of Collateralised Facultative Reinsurance (CFR) to our viewers.  James and his business partners launched AGILE as a pure risk advisory, bringing broking expertise, and an understanding of insurer and reinsurer capital pressures together with technology to try and deliver a lower cost-of-risk for their clients.  Recently, AGILE has secured risk capital from hedge fund investors amounting to $250 million and is now looking to secure opportunities to deploy that capital on a collateralised basis into what they are terming “special reinsurance situations.”  With a maximum of $30m deployable into any single opportunity, the AGILE team hopes to build a diversified portfolio of really interesting risk opportunities for its investors, while helping cedents to reduce their cost-of-risk.  James explained AGILE's thinking around the concept of Collateralised Facultative Reinsurance (CFR) and why he thinks that's the next big thing and a relatively untapped opportunity for insurance-linked investors.

Tom Johansmeyer, Head of PCS, gave a keynote speech titled "The Four Horsemen of 2021 (key reinsurance risks that won't go away)". This was a session from our Prospectus 2021 event, the new annual reinsurance and insurance-linked securities (ILS) conference brought to you by Artemis in collaboration with sister title Reinsurance News in November 2020. Johansmeyer used the Four Horsemen to underline what he saw as the  greatest challenges for the insurance and reinsurance industry in 2021. The COVID-19 coronavirus pandemic was top of the four risks likely to impact insurers and reinsurers in 2021, followed by the potential for civil unrest and Strikes, Riots and Civil Commotion (SRCC). After that, Johansmeyer saw cyber risk as the third largest risk to insurance and reinsurance markets for 2021. The fourth horseman though was natural catastrophe and severe weather risk, which quickly became true with the US winter storms in February 2021. Key though, for insurance and reinsurance markets in 2021, would be generating returns. "How you generate returns may be different relative to the amount of capital you’re deploying, that will depend on the rate environment, of course. And, you could have some issues around choosing what makes sense. Some classes of business that looked good before, may not now. Some classes of business that you desperately wanted to leave until now, but for reasons of momentum or other forms of commitment you haven’t, this may be the opportunity," Johansmeyer explained.

This was another session from Prospectus 2021, the new annual reinsurance and insurance-linked securities (ILS) conference brought to you by Artemis in collaboration with sister title Reinsurance News in November 2020. This panel discussion saw us joined by some real experts in their fields of catastrophe risk and meteorological perils, to discuss the issue of secondary perils and climate change related risks. Participating were Kelly Hereid, Director, Catastrophe R&D, Liberty Mutual Insurance; Steve Bowen, Director & Meteorologist, Head of Catastrophe Insight, Aon; and Andreas Weigel, Weather Perils Lead, Swiss Re. Our expert speakers discussed the increasing impacts to insurers, reinsurers and ILS capital from so-called secondary perils, explaining some of the science behind this, what trends are being seen, if or how climate risk plays a role and what this means for underwriting strategies going forwards. The discussion covered the increasing contributor to catastrophe losses for the insurance, reinsurance and insurance-linked securities (ILS) industry that secondary perils have become, as well as the potential climate links to this rising cost burden.

Chamath Palihapitiya and David Soloff, founders of new startup OTT Risk, joined us to discuss their ambitions of unlocking private capital to support the non-damage business interruption insurance market.  With the theme of our ILS NYC 2021 event being "defining the next-generation" of insurance-linked securities (ILS), the recent launch of a new tech start-up focused on the insurance sector named OTT Risk closely aligned with our thinking on the future of this marketplace.  OTT Risk wants to tackle the massive societal issue around availability of insurance capacity for non-damage business interruption, something that has come to a head with the pandemic in the last year.  OTT Risk aims to enhance the economic resilience of the world’s businesses, by filling business interruption coverage gaps using advanced technology such as machine learning and by leveraging insurance-linked securities (ILS) structures to connect this emerging risk class with capital market investors.  So we were delighted to welcome founders David Soloff and Chamath Palihapitiya (of Social Capital fame) to learn more about their company and its mission.

For this broadcast, three specialist reinsurance and insurance-linked securities (ILS) focused Partners from global law firm Mayer Brown joined us as part of our virtual ILS NYC 2021 conference.  Steve Rooney, Ricky Spitzer and Colin Scagell, all of who work on numerous insurance-linked securities (ILS) and collateralised reinsurance transactions and structures, shared their thoughts on the future of the ILS market with us.  We discussed the important role of legal structuring within the ILS market, as well as how that may evolve over the coming years and how structures can promote innovation in the marketplace.  The group also explained where they see the potential for future ILS market expansion and growth, as well as the importance of ensuring both cedents and investors are well-protected by robust structures and legal documentation.

Rowan Douglas, Head of the Climate and Resilience Hub at Willis Towers Watson joined us as part of our ILS NYC 2021 virtual conference, providing an update on his important work at the intersection of climate science, capital, policy and risk. Rowan explained the importance of access to deep capital in financing for protection against climate risk and increasing climate resilience.  Having spoken at our first ever ILS NYC conference five years ago, Rowan highlighted the need for industry engagement on climate matters.  He gave us his updated thoughts on the important role of the capital markets in financing support for the closure of climate protection gaps.  Alongside insurance and reinsurance, Rowan sees an important place that the insurance-linked securities (ILS) market can participate in helping the world become more resilient to climate risks. The conversation also discussed the important topic of credit and how embedding climate into broader global financial credit decisions could be a tipping point for the need for climate risk transfer capital.

Tom Johansmeyer, Head of PCS, a Verisk business, joined us for a second interview during our ILS NYC 2021 virtual conference, this time to discuss the effects of the ongoing COVID-19 coronavirus pandemic on the reinsurance and insurance-linked securities market.  The discussion focused on the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic and what its continuation means for insurance-linked securities (ILS) and reinsurance markets.  We also spoke about how long the tail of the pandemic could prove to be, particularly in longer-tailed lines of insurance and when the industry may have greater visibility of the eventual industry-loss total, across insurance, reinsurance and insurance-linked security (ILS) markets.  The topic of hedging also came up and we talked about how important it may be for insurance and reinsurance firms to find ways to protect themselves against future pandemic losses, as COVID-19 impacts continue across the world.

Michael Bennett, Head of Derivatives & Structured Finance at the World Bank Treasury kindly joined us for an interview as part of our virtual ILS NYC 2021 conference.  He shared his thoughts on the World Bank's work in disaster risk financing and the use of insurance-linked securities (ILS) structures, such as catastrophe bonds, alongside traditional reinsurance, to help its member countries enhance their resilience.  We discussed his views on where the World Bank's use of insurance-linked securities (ILS) may evolve towards in the future.  This included how the catastrophe bond fits into disaster and other forms of risk financing, what has gone well and what the insurance-linked securities (ILS) market could perhaps do differently to support the expansion of this work.  Michael also explained what he believes needs to happen for uptake of sovereign ILS and catastrophe bonds to increase, as well as where more issuance could come from.

Marcus Rivaldi, Managing Director, Analytics at specialist ILS and reinsurance investment manager Twelve Capital, joined us to explore environmental, social and governance (ESG) practices in the insurance-linked securities (ILS) market, as part of our ILS NYC 2021 virtual conference.  We spoke about ESG (environmental, social, governance) and what the insurance-linked securities (ILS) sector needs to consider moving forwards.  Discussing some of the important issues that need to be addressed to ensure the ILS asset class can meet the demands of investors for ESG compatible returns.  Marcus also explained that the already large environmental, social and governance (ESG) investor community is poised to expand further, but in order for the insurance-linked securities (ILS) sector to really take advantage of the opportunity it needs to address certain challenges. Rivaldi highlighted inconsistency across the insurance and reinsurance balance sheet, with carriers being more eager to disclose information on the asset side of the balance sheet, but not so willing on the liability side. Furthermore, geographical inconsistency is also a hindrance, he added. Of course, it’s also going to be critical for the market to really demonstrate the understanding and management of environmental-type risks, which raises the climate factor and the capabilities of modelling for certain exposures.

For this interview, with Cory Anger, Managing Director and Liam Martens, Vice President, both from GC Securities, the capital markets division of reinsurance broker Guy Carpenter, we discussed the next generation of catastrophe bonds. The pair joined us as part of our virtual ILS NYC 2021 conference, to discuss where catastrophe bonds could gain broader market acceptance and uptake.  As well as how insurance-linked securities (ILS) in general can play an increasingly important role in risk transfer and reinsurance markets.  We discussed how the insurance-linked securities (ILS) market can assume a larger role in insurer and reinsurer capital stacks and what that would mean for insurance and reinsurance cedents. Catastrophe bonds can become a more permanent piece of the insurance and reinsurance market's capital arrangements, the pair believe. Which would see insurance-linked securities (ILS) becoming a form of permanent capital, that can be relied upon for evolving and growing insurance or reinsurance businesses.

This group discussion was held during our ILS NYC 2021 conference, to explore the expansion of the insurance-linked securities (ILS) asset class to cover a broader range of perils. We welcomed: Yaniv Bertele, Co-Founder & CEO of Vesttoo Ltd.; Thibaut Adam, Managing Director, Citi; Kenny Durbin, Senior Vice President, Guy Carpenter; and Matt Beard, Managing Director, Guy Carpenter.  The panel joined us to explore areas of potential insurance-linked securities (ILS) market expansion as part of our ILS NYC 2021 virtual conference.  We talked about the opportunities for capital market investors in areas of risk outside of the more typical property catastrophe exposures that are commonplace in ILS markets.  We also explored the potential for technology such as artificial intelligence to enable and facilitate the transfer of longer-tailed risks to the capital markets, as well as where the ILS market is going in terms of non-CAT risk investments.  Specific segments explored included casualty lines of business, specialty risks, as well as life and health related exposures.  The investor appetite for a broader range of reinsurance perils in insurance-linked securities (ILS) format was also discussed.

Michael Millette, Founder and Managing Partner of Hudson Structured Capital Management joined us for this interview as part of our ILS NYC 2021 virtual insurance-linked securities conference. The discussion focused on Michael's views on the forward-looking development of the insurance, reinsurance and insurance-linked securities (ILS) market, as well as how capital use may change across insurance and reinsurance.  The wide-ranging discussion also covered the special purpose acquisition company (SPAC), digital technology and insurtech, as well as where surprises and opportunities may come from that may benefit insurance-linked securities investors and investors across the rest of the insurance and reinsurance spectrum.  In particular we focused on topics relevant to the fact Millette believes the insurance and reinsurance sector will change more over the next decade than it has in the last 70 years.

Michael Stahel, Partner and Portfolio Manager, LGT ILS Partners, joined us to explore insurance-linked securities allocation strategies, as part of our ILS NYC 2021 virtual conference. For this interview we discussed what a next-generation insurance-linked securities (ILS) allocation strategy could look like.  Michael explained how this has been approached at LGT ILS Partners in their collateralised reinsurance underwriting and ILS investment, as well as his view on how future strategies may evolve.  We also spoke about new strategies that could bring greater efficiency to both investor and ILS fund manager capital as well.  While still remaining true to the original premise of insurance-linked securities and collateralized reinsurance, delivering efficient capacity to support risk transfer transactions.

Barney Schauble, Head of Labs at Nephila Advisors, part of insurance-linked securities (ILS) manager Nephila Capital, joined us for a fascinating discussion as part of our ILS NYC 2021 virtual conference.  The discussion focused on the opportunity side of the environmental, social and governance (or ESG) question for the insurance-linked securities (ILS) market.  Schauble discussed the importance of climate and impact related risk transfer and how this could play into the ILS market over time.  Importantly touching on what this could mean for the insurance-linked securities (ILS) investment community going forwards, as well as for the use of ILS structures to support climate related risks, and impact focused insurance or reinsurance risk transfer.

We were delighted to be given some insight into global reinsurance giant Swiss Re's plans for future insurance-linked securities (ILS) activities by Judy Klugman, Global Co-Head of ILS, and Ed Johnson, Head of ILS Sales EMEA & APAC, both from Swiss Re Capital Markets.  The pair joined us as part of our virtual ILS NYC 2021 conference, to discuss the role of the reinsurer in delivering next generation ILS investment opportunities. Judy and Ed explained where the next generation of ILS investment opportunities with Swiss Re as a partner will likely come from.  As well as what the role of a global reinsurance player like Swiss Re is in delivering future ILS investment opportunities and structures.  We also touched on how Swiss Re’s strategy of bringing ILS capacity into its own capital structure more directly is going to continue to evolve.  While lines of insurance and reinsurance business that may be deemed suitable to partner with capital market investors were also a topic of conversation.  Judy and Ed also gave us their thoughts on the future role of the catastrophe bond as a staple of ILS and reinsurance risk management.

Niklaus Hilti, Head of insurance-linked securities (ILS) at investment manager Credit Suisse's Insurance Linked Strategies division joined us as part of our ILS NYC 2021 virtual conference.  Niklaus discussed his forward-looking, perhaps blue-sky view of what the insurance-linked securities (ILS) market could become over the next decade.  Catastrophe bonds, collateralized reinsurance and other established ILS instruments such as sidecars and ILW's were discussed.  Niklaus also explained how structures could change in the ILS market in future, what investor appetite may look like, as well as future origination processes to secure access to insurance and reinsurance risks.

Tom Johansmeyer, Head of PCS, a Verisk business, joined us during our ILS NYC 2021 virtual conference to discuss the important role of the industry-loss trigger in insurance-linked securities (ILS) and catastrophe bonds.  He shared his thoughts on how use of the industry-loss trigger structure may evolve over the next few years in catastrophe bonds, ILS and reinsurance.  He also provided some outlook on cat bond market activity and ILS for the coming year, as well as how such structures can become increasingly important to those seeking reinsurance or retrocessional protection.  Tom also shared some thoughts on basis risk in reinsurance more generally with us, discussing how cedents generally consider this.

This was the fifth session of Prospectus 2021, a new annual reinsurance and insurance-linked securities (ILS) conference brought to you by Artemis in collaboration with sister title Reinsurance News in November 2020. Focusing on the capital and investments side of both reinsurance and insurance-linked securities (ILS), the expert panellists discussed the impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic on the sector's capital raising abilities. They highlighted the new wave of capital going to both established entities, as well as to new startups across reinsurance. Greg Hagood, Co-Founder of Nephila Capital explained, "For the existing companies it’s interesting because obviously liquidity is abundant, capital’s flowing and there’s easy to access capital right now in the world. So, it seems to me that part of that capital raise is likely defensive; shoring up past reserves, shoring up the balance sheet; a lot of uncertainty around COVID. "So, part of that raise was probably defensive, and part of it is likely offensive." Also participating in the panel discussion were: Stephan Ruoff, Head of Schroder Secquaero; Henning Ludolphs, Managing Director, Retrocession & Capital Markets, Hannover Re; and John Butler, Managing Director, Cohen & Company. Butler of Cohen & Company highlighted that investors have been very supportive of insurance, reinsurance and ILS companies through the pandemic. While at the same time the opportunity to invest in re/insurance has become very attractive right now. "We see very attractive opportunities for investment moving forward, and I think our investors now feel that there is sufficient clarity to understand how this has been affected by the current situation and what the changes will be moving forward," Butler said. Ruoff of Schroder Secquaero explained that he sees capital flowing to more predictable insurance-linked securities (ILS) structures. "I think it comes down to what you call the alignment of interest, and the alignment of interest with the manager that’s the fiduciary of the money, or with the management team, or the capital providers and the management team when it comes to building new structures," Ruoff noted.

This was the fourth session of Prospectus 2021, a new annual reinsurance and insurance-linked securities (ILS) conference brought to you by Artemis in collaboration with sister title Reinsurance News in November 2020.  The session focused on terms and conditions (T&Cs) and explored both the loosening during the soft market period, and the expectation of continued tightening as the market enters 2021.  Strengthening terms of insurance and reinsurance, both to improve the clarity of coverage and precision of payouts when loss events occur, is seen as a key way to enhance the product and also the underwriting returns of companies in the sector.  During the panel, it was highlighted that in the ILS space there’s already been a focus on quota share terms, there’s been a toughening up on aggregates, and also a shift away from cascading coverages as market players look to secure more favourable T&Cs.  But while progress has clearly been made, is this enough or is there a lot more to do at the renewals?  The panel featured Heather Kitson, Deputy Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of Convex Re, Michael Millette, Founder & Managing Partner, Hudson Structured Capital Management and James Parker, Chief Claims Officer at AXIS Re.  The discussion covered the continuing shift to named peril coverage and how certain areas of the market were already ahead on this, such as catastrophe bonds.  It also covered the need for alignment between parties and how this can overcome terms confusion.  Both cyber risks and so-called intangible risks were also discussed, with the panel concluding that the industry needs to work on terms to contain these and other areas of insurance and reinsurance where difficult to predict losses may lie.

This was the third session of Prospectus 2021, a new annual reinsurance and insurance-linked securities (ILS) conference brought to you by Artemis in collaboration with sister title Reinsurance News in November 2020.  Attendees were treated to an expert panel focused on what really matters for Chief Investment Officers (CIOs) going into 2021.  It’s no secret that interest rates have been dangerously low for some time now, and with the lower for longer environment expected to persist for the foreseeable future, insurers and reinsurers are once again increasingly focused on underwriting discipline and profitability.  In light of the challenges on the asset side of the balance sheet, session moderator Van Hesser, Chief Strategist at Kroll Bond Rating Agency (KBRA), questioned panellists on the impact COVID-19 is having on the investment landscape, and whether the introduction of a global pandemic has led to any changes in the investment philosophy.  Panellists discussed the trends affecting insurance and reinsurance company investment strategies and what their CIO's need to consider as the market moves into 2021, still under the shadow of the pandemic, low rates and financial volatility.  Also participating in this session were: Vincent DeLucia, CIO, New England Asset Management, Inc.; Jason Pratt, Head of Insurance Fixed Income at Neuberger Berman; and Paul Norris, Managing Director, Head of Structured Products, Conning.

This was the second session of Prospectus 2021, a new annual reinsurance and insurance-linked securities (ILS) conference brought to you by Artemis in collaboration with sister title Reinsurance News in November 2020.  This session saw Dr. Jamie Rodney, Executive Director of ILS Analytics at ILS investment manager Twelve Capital, giving an in-depth and insightful keynote exploration of peak catastrophe perils and the climate factor, with a focus on hurricane risks.  The keynote delved deep into the work Twelve Capital has been doing to better understand hurricane risk and the potential influence of climate change, as well as the workings of catastrophe risk models with a view to the incorporation of climate factors.  This keynote presentation was delivered with slides, but the video unfortunately does not include them.  When it comes to understanding the uncertainty around the output of catastrophe models, Rodney suggested that different insurance, reinsurance and ILS industry players could benefit from working together more closely.  “I would actually argue that there needs to be more collaboration across the industry,” Rodney said during a Q&A session after his keynote.  “From a cat model perspective, working and collaborating with cat model vendors and having worked at a cat model vendor myself, there’s a lot of cutting edge science, there’s a lot of leading scientists working on this field.”

This was the opening panel session of Prospectus 2021, a new annual reinsurance and insurance-linked securities (ILS) conference brought to you by Artemis in collaboration with sister title Reinsurance News, in association with Kroll Bond Rating Agency (KBRA), panellists discussed the Covid-19 outlook for the re/insurance and ILS industry.  To start, Peter Giacone, Managing Director, Global Head of Insurance, KBRA, noted the very unique situation that the markets are in many months after the arrival of the global crisis.  “I think back to how we were looking at it and trying to grapple with the issues back in March and April. I think now, with the benefit of six months of hindsight, I think the industry has actually fared quite well. From a credit risk perspective, I think there was an awful lot of hand wringing that was going on at the time, there was a lot of concern around how assets and liabilities would behave,” said Giacone.  At KBRA, he continued, the firm tried to keep a very steady hand with regards to taking rating actions, which Giacone said has proven to be the correct course of action.  “I think the asset side of the balance sheet has sort of stabilised a little, obviously with quite a bit of volatility and uncertainty continuing. So, some of the short-term concern on that front, I think, has somewhat subsided, but we will obviously have new challenges, in terms of low interest rates,” he said.  Adding, “On the liability side, I think also, again, lots of uncertainty. But, some of the very large numbers that had been bantered around initially, which I think made sense at the time, certainly I think we’re at a point now where perhaps some of those are not where we’re going to land. And, so, I think that’s good news for the industry overall.”  The panel discussion also features David Flandro of HX, Linda Johnson of TigerRisk Partners and Joanna Syroka of Fermat Capital Management.

We spoke with Tom Johansmeyer, Head of PCS, today, to discuss the rioting and civil disturbance seen at the US Capitol buildings on January 6th 2021. While the rioting and disturbances seen yesterday won’t have any significant implications in terms of losses for the insurance and reinsurance industry, there is a lot to consider. Johansmeyer explained some of the backdrop to yesterday’s events, as so-called strike, riot and civil commotion (SRCC) risks have appeared elevated for more than a year. With a lot going on in the world right now, various pressures are building and potentially elevating SRCC risk, Johansmeyer explained. It’s a challenging risk to understand and evaluate, but one that has the potential to be increasingly impactful in financial terms as well, although it is still relatively rare that SRCC losses fall to the reinsurance or retrocession market. Johansmeyer also gave some colour on previous major insurance and reinsurance industry SRCC events, what to think about in the industry loss warranty (ILW) market and explained what industry participants should be thinking of going forwards.

Our latest podcast episode provides a review of the record levels of catastrophe bond and related insurance-linked securities (ILS) market issuance from the fourth-quarter and the full-year 2020. The catastrophe bond market broke records in 2020, with issuance reaching a new high of $11bn of property cat bonds, or $16.4bn if you include other classes of business and mortgage insurance-linked securities (ILS). Artemis tracked very one of the transactions and in this episode we explain some of the important details of Q4 and full-year 2020 catastrophe bond issuance, highlight some landmark deals and look ahead to 2021 for the ILS market. Market conditions look strong and the return potential from portfolios of cat bonds has risen for investors, as it has across the reinsurance linked investments space. Underscoring issuance records, were a number of new sponsors and interesting highlights, such as the first catastrophe bond from a tech-giant as Google parent Alphabet Inc. came to market twice. Alongside that, another first saw an asset manager using a cat bond to hedge earthquake risk from its portfolio, something we believe could herald further interest from asset owners and holders to leverage the ILS market to carve out and transfer climate, weather and catastrophe risks from their portfolios.

This podcast episode features an executive roundtable discussion we held in December 2020 that brought together industry participants to discuss key issues related to the insurance-linked security and catastrophe bond market’s readiness for and adoption of Environmental, Social and Governance (ESG) practices. This roundtable discussion sought to gain an understanding of the consequences of non-ESG compliance in insurance risk transfer; to identify starting points for improved compliance; alongside an exploration of the needs of the market and investors. After an overview of the status quo around the implementation of the ESG framework in the European Union (EU), the conversation shifted focus to the ILS space and specifically, whether or not ESG is being sufficiently considered in the market at this time. Industry experts noted that there is much more to do, on embedding ESG practices within insurance-linked securities (ILS) and catastrophe bonds. In particular, the ability to be truly transparent and show investors that portfolios of risk ceded to, or underlying, reinsurance and ILS transactions are ESG compliant remains a significant hurdle facing the market as it seeks to meet rapidly evolving investor motivations and needs.

Our latest podcast episode features an interview with Patrick Roder, Associate Partner and Global Head of ILS at Synpulse Management Consulting, who joined us recently to discuss the publication of a study analysing the results of our survey on the maturity of environmental, social, and governance (ESG) practices in the risk transfer, reinsurance and insurance-linked securities (ILS) markets.  Market participants across risk transfer, including insurance-linked securities (ILS) and reinsurance, have a lot to gain from further operationalising Environmental, Social and Governance (ESG) within their core businesses, the now published study reveals.  During the third-quarter of 2020, Artemis teamed up with boutique consulting firm Synpulse to conduct this survey on the maturity of ESG practices within the risk transfer, reinsurance and ILS markets.  During this interview, Roder explained why Environmental, Social and Governance (ESG) factors have become such a hot topic in risk transfer and why this is relevant to the insurance-linked securities (ILS) market as well.  "The concepts that stand behind ESG are not new at all. In fact sustainability is at the very heart of the risk transfer market.  "Some players might have had a more narrow definition of what that means, but others have pretty early on already had a broad definition and actually also been driving the definition of sustainability themselves," Roder said.  "So it's not like this subject has become suddenly a hot topic for the reinsurance and ILS market, but it has built up overtime," Roder continued.  "It's true that in ILS and reinsurance it has been a bit more recent compared to other parts of the financial industry, but that's probably just because the asset class of ILS and the underwriting side of the insurance and reinsurance industry is a bit more complex, when you look at the value chain, all the parts you have to look at. It's much more complex than analysing an equity investment.  "So I think the market needed some time, to build up this pressure and also the know how to put more focus on the topic of ESG."  The interview went on to discuss the inherent ESG qualities of reinsurance and ILS, but also why true ESG compatibility requires much more transparency and disclosure in the market chain.

After our last podcast on the importance of being good custodians of capital, thought it might be interesting to discuss the potential for recency bias among investors that are pouring capital into the market right now. In this episode we discuss whether the cycle is dead, changed for good, or whether some people have just forgotten recent history and may be making decisions based on the reinsurance renewals of the last year. Forgetting how the reinsurance market changes over the last decade to fifteen years could be a critical mistake and those bringing money into the market right now really need to be asking why now is the right time, how it's going to be used differently to be more effective and deliver better returns, and what the company they're funding plans to do to ensure these returns can be delivered sustainably and not just in a small window of opportunity.

At this time of year with the reinsurance renewals fast-approaching and new capital entering the market from private equity investor backed raises and start-up launches, as well as insurance-linked securities (ILS), being good custodians of capital is especially important (but often neglected). In this podcast episode we touch on some of the reasons new capital can often find itself having to be the cheapest reinsurance capital in the market. As a range of factors have driven the reinsurance market into its current firming (perhaps hardening) state, this has attracted large private equity investors, who are deploying significant sums into reinsurance start-ups led by well-known industry luminaries. But, no matter how luminous, start-ups can face the age-old problem of being new to programs and so having to be cheap, or super-competitive, on price to get sufficient signings to deploy all their capacity into renewal business. This year, a number of start-ups have added billions of dollars of new capital into the market, in a year when sector capital has not been particularly severely eroded. These well-funded start-ups are banking on being able to build quality portfolios of reinsurance business, to deliver the returns their private equity backers demand. At the same time, new ILS fund start-ups face the same issues, of having to be competitive and open to avenues to deploy capital they may not have envisaged. All of which will have an effect on the renewals, but also underscores the need to be good custodians of investor capital.

This episode features a panel discussion featuring three leading institutional investors that allocate to insurance-linked securities (ILS) and reinsurance linked investments.  The discussion was held at our recent ILS Asia 2020 conference and the experienced ILS investors explained what they really look for from their allocations to the ILS asset class, as well as some of the challenges they face and frustrations they have.  The investors noted that the experience of catastrophe losses, loss creep and trapped ILS collateral of the last few years has resulted in lessons being learned in the ILS industry.  “This period was clearly a challenge for the whole market,” said Eveline Takken-Somers, Senior Director, Lead Portfolio Manager – Insurance Portfolio, PGGM.  “We spent quite some time educating our clients so the losses itself did not raise many questions.”  Panellist Bernard van der Stichele, Portfolio Manager (ILS), Fixed Income & Derivatives Healthcare of Ontario Pension Plan (HOOPP), explained that the recent loss experience was new for most ILS market participants.  “That sequence of events was really new for many people in the industry, not just investors but fund managers included. And, so, it was interesting to observe how incumbent markets dealt with losses, loss estimates and then communicated that to investors. I think everybody learned something out of those couple of years.”  Craig Dandurand, Head of Debt at the Future Fund of Australia, said it’s a matter of being prepared for the eventualities of losses, creep and trapped collateral when entering the ILS space.  “Anytime you go into an asset class that has an unclear potential outcome, you have to be prepared for that volatility of realisation of gains or losses, much less the volatility of the actual cash flows themselves, the timing comes into play.  “And, so, I think the surprises were more in terms of the range of outcomes, the different range of events, the extent to which at least during the first series of losses the relative alacrity with which capital was redeployed, or made available to be redeploy, that was a bit dispiriting.  “So, in a sense it feels like we could be at the start of a bit of a relief here in the sense that my other day job, on the credit side, you see credit spreads having tightened very, very quickly after the Covid-19 related events back in February, March and April. Here you haven’t quite seen that snap back this time around.  “We are still learning and I’m sure we’ll be learning long into the future.”

Sidney Rostan, Head of ILS at SCOR Investment Partners is the latest industry executive to join our series of Artemis Live video interviews.  Leading insurance-linked securities (ILS) investments for the asset management group of global reinsurance company SCOR, Rostan shared his views on a specific topic of interest, the opportunity in industry-loss warranty (ILW) investments, as well as on ILS market trends in general.  Rostan explained that the industry-loss warranty (ILW) market is more than just a fall-back for retrocession, or an alternative to a catastrophe bond.  "We've been able to build relationships in that market," he explained.  "We've seen the landscape change, in terms of who's buying and who's selling protection, we've seen people come in and come out. But at the same time we do have long-standing relationships with a number of counterparties," he continued.  Adding that, "We're renewing some ILW structures for the fifth or the sixth time," with customised solutions and tailor-made ILW coverage a focus.  "An ILW is basically the only product which is not syndicated. It is the only product which allows you to generate your own investment opportunity, in a way, unlike cat bonds or the vast majority of CRI.  "You can build your own structure. You can imagine that you have an existing portfolio and you want to design the perfect additional investment, really fitting your portfolio, enhancing the diversification and the risk -adjusted return, for example.  "So you can design that structure and try to place it, try to find the exact matching interest," Rostan said.  While that's theoretical and often, in practice, it is not always so easy to find the exact matching appetite, you usually end up with the structure you're looking for or a structured that is very similar and that makes sense from a portfolio construction perspective, he explained.  More broadly, Rostan discussed ILS market conditions and his outlook. He said to expect "an overall market hardening, more investor discipline in the visible part of the market, and a pretty good environment for us."  While there is still a lot of uncertainty in the market over COVID-19 and the potential for losses from the pandemic, while legal actions continue to evolve, Rostan said the ILS market will take its share of the loss, with more impact on the UNL side and in the retro market.

This podcast episode features a panel discussion on life insurance linked securities, covering what cedants and investors need to know about life ILS as an asset class right now under the shadow of the COVID-19 pandemic.  The discussion was held at our recent ILS Asia 2020 conference and it was the first time we introduced life ILS to our Asian audience.  Overall, the impacts of the ongoing Covid-19 pandemic are expected to be positive for opportunities in the life insurance-linked securities (ILS) space, according to Luca Tres, Partner, Head of Life, Securis Investment Partners.  While Tom Spreutels, Head of Origination, Life & Alternative Credit, Leadenhall Capital Partners, explained that he hopes that altered risk perception would translate into more deal flow in the life ILS sector.  "On the one hand, there is less risk appetite from the non-specialist players which brings an opportunity for us. Secondly, it probably also means that people in the industry who have been affected by this secondary impact, i.e. the market impact, may start thinking about doing something, which means attractive opportunities for us to go and play, and be part of a solution to the problem that people may be waking up to,” Spreutels said.  Tres from Securis said, “If the ILS community manages to come out of the worst pandemic of our lives without any substantial loss, I think we pretty much achieved our goal, by providing something uncorrelated and resilient for our investors.”  Adding that, “So, as a whole I actually see Covid-19 to have a positive impact for our industry, because it translates into better opportunities for us to deploy money, and it translates to opportunities to find even more attractive returns,” said Tres.

Christian Mumenthaler, Chief Executive Officer of the world's largest reinsurance company Swiss Re, joined us this month, to discuss how his company has fared since the pandemic, the state of the market and what his outlook and priorities are for 2021.  Mumenthaler discussed a wide range of topics, from the current status of Swiss Re as it deals with claims from the Covid-19 pandemic, to reinsurance renewal expectations, use of insurance-linked securities (ILS) and alternative capital, innovation, technology, the protection gap, as well as an outlook for 2021 and beyond.  "Our outlook is optimistic. With everything that's happened, I think the industry is obviously moving," Mumenthaler explained.  Adding that, on rates across insurance and reinsurance, "More is needed for the industry to be sustainable and I think everybody understands that."  "We're optimistic, we're extremely well-capitalised.  "Still, quality will matter right? I'm not saying this is a great opportunity to grow like hell. I think the whole industry needs to focus on quality," he continued.  On use of alternative reinsurance capital Mumenthaler said, "I always believed that the capital market will play an important role in closing this protection gap.  "I think it's here to stay, in the Nat Cat field, in some of these peak risks. I think it will play a bigger and bigger role."

Paul Schultz, Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of Aon Securities, the capital markets and insurance-linked securities (ILS) focused unit of the insurance and reinsurance broker, joined our ILS Asia 2020 conference to give a keynote speech in July 2020.  Schultz explained that the trend of insured against uninsured losses across the Asia Pacific region is not sustainable, and the insurance-linked securities (ILS) market will need to play an integral role in addressing the issue.  "The protection gap exists globally and there’s a stark reality between what is insured and what is uninsured. And, in Asia Pacific that protection gap is even slightly worse that what it is globally," Schultz said.  Adding that, "ILS and broadly the capital markets are going to have to be an instrumental part of the way we solve this."  During his speech, Schultz also noted the expectation for a broader range of catastrophe bond and ILS sponsors to come to market.  "I would say on the type of sponsor, we think that corporate sponsors, government sponsors, so really getting away from the traditional sponsors of catastrophe bonds, we think that that’s a very reasonable growth expectation, not only in Asia but globally, that more different types of sponsors will come to the market," he explained.  Saying that, "We see corporates and governments as well represented in that."

Our latest interview features Peter Giacone, Managing Director and Global Head of Insurance at Kroll Bond Rating Agency (KBRA), who joined us to discuss how investor appetites have changed due to the coronavirus pandemic and what this means for the insurance-linked securities (ILS) sector.  Giacone explained that financial markets in general are seeing large flows from investors and that part of this interest is being shown in the insurance and reinsurance space.  But with traditional investment classes highly volatile, institutional investors have been looking closely at alternatives, especially those that exhibit lower correlation.  As a result, the insurance-linked securities (ILS) market and direct investments into reinsurance risk bearing vehicles or funds are looking incredibly attractive at this time.  Giacone said that, "People have to adapt and that spells opportunity. I think this asset class in particular is going to start to look more and more attractive.  "A longer-term investor is going to look at ILS and say, you may have some temporary dislocations in the market when you have a high correlation, but over the long-term they're going to see that this is an asset class that clearly behaves completely independent of what's going on in other markets for the most part and therefore provides a tremendous opportunity."  We also discussed the use of ratings in ILS markets and catastrophe bonds, with Giacone explaining that he sees the potential for entire portfolios of ILS assets to be rated, rather than just individual bonds and he described how this could prove attractive to major investors such as life insurers.

This podcast episode features a panel discussion from our July 2020 virtual ILS Asia conference, participants discussed the opportunities for parametric risk transfer structures in the region, as well as how reinsurance and insurance-linked securities (ILS) markets can capitalise on them.  Speakers said there is a need for greater education and awareness, but that risk managers across Asia are becoming increasingly comfortable with the idea of parametric structures.  In recent years, and notably in the insurance, reinsurance and ILS space, parametric trigger structures have grown in popularity and speakers explained how corporate risk managers use this type of protection as an alternative and to complement their traditional programmes.  The panel also discussed the use of parametric triggers in catastrophe bond transactions.  Availability of data can be an issue though and speakers said while in Asia there is access to satellite data relatively easily, it is still more difficult to obtain windspeed data, for example, when compared with more developed markets like the U.S.  Participants also offered some thoughts on the investment case for parametric ILS structures, insurance or reinsurance and how investment managers approach these types of transactions.

This podcast episode features panellists at our recent virtual ILS Asia conference discussing important role of insurance-linked securities (ILS), such as catastrophe bonds and other capital markets backed reinsurance tools, in narrowing and closing protection gaps in the Asia Pacific region.  Featuring participants from the World Bank Treasury, reinsurance broker Guy Carpenter's GC Securities, law firm Rajah & Tann and the Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS), the panellists also discussed the developing Singapore and Asia marketplace for ILS and how that can help in closing risk financing gaps.  They explained that the Asia Pacific region has become a key component of the global insurance-linked securities (ILS) marketplace and that interest from cedants and issuers continues to surge.  Whether through quota share reinsurance arrangements or in reinsurance sidecars that ILS investors participate in, or more directly through issued catastrophe bonds and collateralised reinsurance deals, the ILS markets participation in and support of Asian catastrophe risks is increasing, the panellists agreed.

In this podcast episode we hear from Franz Josef-Hahn, CEO of Hong Kong headquartered reinsurance company Peak Re and Iain Reynolds, Director & Head of Analytics at Peak Re, who gave a keynote presentation on the developing Asia reinsurance and ILS market. The pair highlighted rapidly increasing probable maximum losses (PMLs) across Asia, as development and urbanisation accelerates at scale in the region. This highlights the need for more insurance and reinsurance capital, as well as the need for better data and modelling to support risk transfer and deployment of capital into the burgeoning risks in Asia. The scale of the PML's that Peak Re believes will accumulate in areas like the Greater Bay region of China suggest that insurance-linked securities and the capital markets have an essential role to play in supporting expansion of insurance across these areas. As a result, Peak Re's CEO Franz Josef Hahn said that ILS capital can support the emerging opportunity for underwriting Asian risks, and highlighted his companies partnership role with investors, as well as its recent investment into the segment with its acquisition of Lutece and formation of its own ILS fund manager Peak Capital. Following the keynote I spent 15 minutes quizzing Franz and Iain, which you can hear at the end of this podcast episode as well.

For our next few podcast episodes we're going to share some of the audio from our recent virtual ILS Asia 2020 conference. More than 850 attendees have now watched sessions from the virtual conference, a figure that keeps on rising. To begin, this episode features Mr. Benny Chey, Assistant Managing Director (Development and International), Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS). Mr. Chey discussed the role of Singapore in the insurance-linked securities (ILS) market, the activity it has seen in terms of catastrophe bond issuance and the importance of capital markets participation in provision of global insurance and reinsurance capacity. In particular, Mr. Chey highlighted the role of ILS and catastrophe bonds in provision of catastrophe reinsurance, helping to narrow and close protection gaps in the Asia Pacific region and beyond. He also revealed an expansion of the Singapore ILS grant scheme, which will now run until the end of 2022, providing a fantastic opportunity for insurance and reinsurance companies to bring cat bond or other ILS transactions to market in Singapore at lower-cost of issuance.

With the news that Integral ILS Ltd. is launching as a new Bermuda based ILS fund manager, I thought it would be interesting to look at the ILS start-up opportunity through the Integral ILS lens. Starting up is never easy, no matter the expertise of those involved, the quality of the provenance, or the blue-chip quality of the partners involved. In the case of Integral ILS, they have all three. The expertise of Managing Partners Lowther and Zeng. The provenance of their respective track records, history in ILS and of working together. The blue-chip quality of stakeholders AmWINS and TransRe. But Integral ILS so far doesn't have capital and at this time when institutional investors remain spooked by the pandemic volatility and often focused elsewhere, it may not be the easiest thing to get started, let alone to gain meaningful scale. Of course nothing is every simple or guaranteed in the world of insurance-linked securities (ILS) and while Integral ILS will face the same challenges as others trying to raise capital at this time, the start-up has a lot going for it in the platform they are creating and the strategy they intend on following. So it's going to be interesting to watch their progress and to see how receptive investors are to this latest ILS start-up offering.

Niklaus Hilti, Chief Executive Officer and Chief Investment Officer of Credit Suisse Insurance Linked Strategies, kindly joined us to discuss the current status of the ILS investment space and reinsurance market trends.  We began by discussing the impacts of the Covid-19 pandemic in insurance-linked securities (ILS). Hilti explained that the Credit Suisse ILS team had been closely watching the situation develop since they were alerted to it back in January.  "We run life and non-life on our platform. This was generally something where we expect a significant importance for our life business. On the non-life side we also expected that a pandemic is going to have a significant impact on the insurance industry and also on the financial markets," he explained.  Adding that, "On the operational side it's really not a big impact, apart from travelling. On the business side, Covid-19 definitely has impacts."  In terms of specifics, Hilti said, "In the life business you definitely have to prepare and you can. That means looking into liquidity and also whether you can still de-risk at this point in time. And also putting up some hedges, which we did for both life and non-life relatively early on in the process.  "We had a lot of technology and models helping us on the pandemic side, but I would say so far, on the life side the impact, yes we see some mark-to-market movements, but at the moment we believe there will be very little to no loss of notional if the pandemic stays contained in developed countries, as we see it at the moment."  "But it's far to early to say that this is over," Hilti cautioned.  He added that, "On the non-life side, the catastrophe ILS side was as expected affected by the flight to liquidity of investors. For us that was more of an opportunity and not too dissimilar to what we saw in 2008."  On the market for property insurance or reinsurance and business interruption, he added, "Insurance is definitely impacted. Reinsurance is somehow impacted. And then ILS is less impacted than these two segments of the overall market. But for the reinsurance industry it's a tough event."

With hurricane season now officially underway we spoke with Jin Shah, Director, Capital Markets & Resilience and Jeff Waters, Senior Product Manager both of catastrophe risk modelling specialist RMS.  RMS provides risk analytics, modelling and data services to the insurance, reinsurance and insurance-linked securities (ILS) industry, so with hurricane season upon us we discussed the outlook for the months ahead with Jin and Jeff.  The pair discussed the forecast outlook for the 2020 Atlantic hurricane season and the tools that RMS offers to help companies in the re/insurance and ILS market better understand their exposures.  Encouragingly, the ILS market is "making a real investment in the analytical processes and workflows that will result in an underwriting process that hopefully mitigates against surprise results," Jin Shah explained.  We discussed the potential impacts of the Covid-19 pandemic on catastrophe response and claims assessment, as well as how the pandemic lockdown and parking of assets has changed the exposure of the industry to a degree.  Waters highlighted that, "Our models do have a lot of flexibility for our users to conduct sensitivity tests and essentially generate their own view of risk for situations like this."  Shah discussed the RMS products that help ILS funds and insurance-linked investors to better understand the threats posed to their portfolios when a hurricane is heading for land.  "This year we're extending the insights and now we've got this notion of a conditional probability of attachment, based on a given level of industry loss," he told us.  This will help ILS investors analyse what specific storm impacts could mean for their catastrophe bond profiles, Shah further explained.  Shah also told us that RMS' tools can show revised probability of attachments for different ILS assets based on given industry loss scenarios.  RMS will also deliver its daily event selection as a risk profile through RMS' Miu platform, which will allow ILS fund managers to analyse their private transactions as well, not just cat bonds, so they can provide better insights to their investor customers.

In this podcast episode we discuss current reinsurance market dynamics and the balancing-act that is capital inflows vs pricing and rate pressure. In a recent article we said that it's a fine line between accolades achieved through raising significant sums of new capital and rate pressure returning to the reinsurance market. In this podcast we summarise some of these thoughts and go into more detail, of relevance to the segment of the market focused on property reinsurance and in particular catastrophe risks (where Artemis is most focused, due to its insurance-linked securities (ILS) market leaning). The property reinsurance and catastrophe risk segment is not an area of the market that is particularly poorly capitalised throughout, but much of the capital raising activity is going to result in reinsurance and insurance players diverting more capacity to this area. With ILS funds and other insurance-linked securities (ILS) ventures likely to bring even more capital to market over the coming 12 months, we wonder whether there could be a return to an over-capitalised segment in property catastrophe reinsurance and retrocession risks? Or whether discipline will prevail and the market control its appetite, while enforcing a much needed and somewhat raised (from previous levels) pricing floor.

Matt Jones, Principal at financial technology (fintech), insurance or reinsurance technology (insurtech) venture capital investment firm Anthemis joined us for our latest video interview.  Jones talked about the venture investing thesis at Anthemis, the sectors of fintech and insurtech that excite the company, as well as his views on the insurtech wave that has spread across insurance and reinsurance markets in recent years.  "If I think about the investment thesis we've got... within the insurance industry everything is in scope, at least at this point. We still feel that there are sufficient opportunities across pretty much all lines of business, whether it's P&C, life and health, primary or reinsurance and across the entire value-chain," Jones explained.  "We're also investing in a series of other spaces that we call adjacencies. These are where there are opportunities to embed financial products, or insurance products, into other industries and where you can see other businesses being built that could have a knock-on impact on the insurance industry further down the line," he continued.  He discussed trends in insurtech, both before and now through the lens of the Covid-19 pandemic, as well as where Anthemis sees opportunities going forwards.  On the potential for the capital markets and insurance-linked securities (ILS) funds to work alongside insurtech start-ups, Jones sees companies looking to efficiency, in terms of capital and reinsurance capacity.  Jones said, "One of the things we see our start-ups spending a lot of time thinking through, is what is the most efficient form of capital that I should be working with, or the best form of capital.  "Is it the reciprocal model, is it traditional reinsurance, is it having their own carrier. You know, is it doing something using derivatives in Bermuda, for example. For each start-up there's going to be an ideal answer, I think."

Michael Millette, Founder & Managing Partner at Hudson Structured Capital Management, a specialist alternative asset manager with a focus on sourcing insurance and reinsurance linked returns for its investors, joined us for our latest video interview.  Millette discussed insurance-linked securities (ILS) and reinsurance investing, giving his view on prospects for the ILS asset class beyond the Covid-19 pandemic and what that may bring for investors.  "Tragedy and history. This is as near to what any of us have seen in our lifetimes, an event affecting everybody all around the world, so it's tragic and likewise it's historic," Millette said.  On the Lloyd's of London estimate for a $107 billion non-life industry loss, he commented, "I expect that's in the right neighbourhood. We have been talking and thinking about losses on that scale.  "It's interesting though, this is not just a gigantic catastrophe loss, although it is a gigantic global catastrophe. This is a massive horizontal loss for the industry."  He went on to explain what this could all mean for the ILS fund and reinsurance linked investment market.  Describing some of the immediate opportunities that could arise in specific lines of business, as well as in investing in insurtech start-ups, saying "this a digital forcing event around the world" and calling it "the insurtech moment."

We spoke with Sean Bourgeois, Founder & CEO of technology-based programmatic insurance and reinsurance risk transfer marketplace provider Tremor Technologies Inc.  Bourgeois explained how the marketplace Tremor has created works, as well as its value proposition for insurance and reinsurance market participants.  "We bring modern liquidity, while preserving relationships for cedents, brokers and reinsurers, essentially matching risk and capital much more efficiently than the traditional process today," Bourgeois explained.  Adding, "The heart and soul of what we do really is about price discovery and syndication of risk, using technology to do that."  He also discussed the industry-loss warranty (ILW) auctions that Tremor has been running on a weekly basis and how the data gathered on supply and demand appetite can be important for the broader market.  The discussion also covered current reinsurance renewal market conditions and how technology can assist in clearing the market, particularly when conditions are more challenging as we've seen of late.  "We see tremendous opportunity for brokers to capture that programmatic trading capability and in the case of where we sit today, to help unlock supply, help their clients complete programs, whether a full program or a shortfall, using technologies like we have," he said.  Overall, he said the goal at Tremor is to help all sides much more efficiently transfer risk in the reinsurance and wholesale risk insurance markets.

In this episode we discuss the fascinating state of the insurance-linked securities (ILS) and reinsurance market at this time, focusing on catastrophe bonds, industry loss warranty's (ILW's), reinsurance sidecars, retrocesssion and the mid-year renewals. With speculative capacity now being seen in the market, speculative covers being sought, and rates hardening in property catastrophe reinsurance, we find ourselves in a market the likes of which has not been seen for more than a decade. We discuss the buoyant catastrophe bond market, which has proven particularly resilient to the Covid-19 pandemic, the ILW market which has been struggling to clear, the reinsurance sidecar market where some sponsors are struggling for capacity and retrocession which some are calling dysfunctional. Feeding into these markets are the same set of dynamics. The losses of recent years, the ILS market impacts seen from trapped capital, the contraction of the retrocession offering, then the pandemic losses and investment side impacts, as well as now the ongoing uncertainty over what this all means for the coming months and years ahead. All of which shapes the market for a fascinating second-half and potentially a lot of hedging activity.

Cory Anger, Managing Director of GC Securities, the capital markets and insurance-linked securities (ILS) unit of reinsurance broker Guy Carpenter, joined us to discuss the state of the catastrophe bond and ILS market, under the lens of the Covid-19 pandemic.  Anger noted the strong start to the year for catastrophe bond issuance in 2020 and said that despite the initial hit caused by the pandemic, issuance is expected to remain robust.  The catastrophe bond continues to offer the protection many cedents are seeking, while enabling them to diversify their reinsurance and retrocessional capital sources, Anger said and also noted the investor case as well.  "One of the things I'm most proud of is that this marketplace again has reaffirmed that it does perform differently to the broader capital markets," Anger explained.  Highlighting the performance of ILS versus other asset classes and how ILS exhibited positive features under the pandemic-hit market conditions, Anger said, "We had a more muted reaction, as represented through the cat bond index, to the valuation of this product. But if you look at more traditional asset classes, if you looked at the same time period for the S&P 500, they were down almost 23%.  "When you also look at the correlation of ILS, represented by cat bonds, you can see a substantially lower correlation pattern between ILS and the other asset classes."  Anger went on to discuss what this means for investment allocations to ILS and reinsurance going forwards.

Luca Albertini, CEO of London headquartered insurance-linked securities (ILS) and reinsurance related investments manger Leadenhall Capital Partners LLP, joined us for a discussion about the state of ILS and reinsurance under Covid-19 pandemic conditions.  Albertini noted the ability of the insurance-linked securities (ILS) and catastrophe bond market to bounce back from the initial effects of broader financial market volatility due to the pandemic.  He went on to discuss the market opportunity to provide more pandemic insurance and reinsurance coverage, as well as the role of ILS funds and ILS investors in delivering on that.  "Something can be structured which affirmatively protects against pandemic for the commercial insurers. If we find that the demand is actually too big, then yes there is a role for public-private partnerships where you could have some backstop from the various governments," Albertini said.  Further explaining that, "Then, like we've seen for flood or terrorism, you could have the cat bond market, or the ILS market, providing some capacity to the governments."

Our latest interview saw us joined by Stephan Ruoff the Deputy Head of insurance-linked securities (ILS) asset manager Schroder Secquaero, a specialist division of global investment group Schroders.  During our discussion, Stephan explained that it seemed to take the reinsurance and ILS industry longer than expected to begin to understand the exposure it faces from the pandemic, as it is unprecedented in global reach compared to prior experience.  "Now what we see is a real, real test for the industry," he explained.  On the question of the liquidity seen in the catastrophe bond market on the back of pandemic driven financial market volatility and whether Schroder Secquaero found specific opportunities there, he explained, "Secondary market trading has indeed offered good opportunities. "We have, usually, a good liquidity position that helped us to trade in a number of instances and helped us also to enhance the portfolios that we run for our investors."  However, he went on to say that this window of opportunity was not particularly long.  So ILS fund managers and catastrophe bond investors had to be ready to take advantage of it, which Schroder Secquaero certainly seemed to be.

In this episode we thought it would be interesting to discuss Florida market reinsurance renewal conditions, through the lens of our vantage point as analysts of the insurance-linked securities (ILS) and catastrophe bond market. The Florida focused June 1st 2020 reinsurance renewal is fast approaching and using the ILS and cat bond market as a benchmark, it's clear that pricing and renewal rates are rising, in some quarters significantly. We run through some of the reasons for this, looking back at market conditions across recent year's, as well as how transactions in the insurance-linked securities (ILS) market (specifically catastrophe bonds) provide a sign of the direction and rate of increase being seen in Florida reinsurance rates.

David Flandro of Hyperion X, the data and analytics focused unit of the Hyperion Insurance Group, joined us for a discussion on the insurance and reinsurance market impacts of the Covid-19 coronavirus pandemic. David told us that, "There seems to be pretty healthy investment appetite for alternative capital products, even products that are non-cyclical rather than non-correlative."  He explained that investors continue to look at reinsurance and ILS as a fairly small proportion of overall pension fund, sovereign wealth fund and other investor assets.  "I don't think this has diminished appetite for ILS very much at all," he said of the pandemic.  "We are getting new investors who are looking for non-correlative assets that are relatively high-yielding, in sectors where rates are going up... and that is what we've been seeing in the reinsurance market."

We were delighted to speak with Paul Schultz, CEO of Aon Securities, the specialist capital markets and insurance-linked securities (ILS) focused division of insurance and reinsurance broker Aon.  Paul discussed the state of the catastrophe bond market, broader cat bond and insurance-linked securities (ILS) market trends, as well as the impacts of the Covid-19 coronavirus pandemic across insurance, reinsurance and risk transfer markets.  He explained that the cat bond and ILS industry has previously shown resilience in time of crisis and this time is no different.  “Both from a cedent perspective and from an investor perspective, I think everyone is being constructive in a period of great dislocation and uncertainty,” Schultz explained.  He highlighted the fact that even in this time of dislocation, the primary and secondary catastrophe bond markets have continued to function in an orderly manner that is supportive of the motivations of cat bond sponsors as well as ILS funds and investors.

We review the catastrophe bond and insurance-linked securities (ILS) market at the end of the first-quarter of 2020, looking at new cat bond risk capital issued and the composition of transactions completed during the quarter. For the first time in any first-quarter and a rarity in any period, catastrophe bond and ILS new issuance exceeded $5 billion in Q1 2020.  Also impressive, is the fact almost $3.9 billion of the new risk capital brought to market focused on catastrophe risk issuance. Catastrophe bonds remain a very important source of reinsurance coverage for protection buyers and an attractive alternative investment opportunity for investors.

We spoke with Frank Majors, co-CEO and President of Nephila Holdings, and a Director of Nephila Capital, to discuss the ongoing coronavirus pandemic plus his views on how this will impact insurance-linked securities (ILS), reinsurance and risk transfer in general.  Frank Majors of Nephila provided us with unique insights into how the largest insurance-linked securities (ILS) fund manager Nephila Capital sees the state of the ILS and reinsurance market, as well as its prospects at this time, plus how it has been affected by the uncertainty driven by the pandemic. Please note: The audio tracks go slightly out of sync in this recording. We hope this doesn't impact your enjoyment of it.

We spoke with Tom Johansmeyer, Head of PCS (a Verisk unit), to explore a number of issues related to the global coronavirus pandemic. Johansmeyer explained the concept of silent pandemic risk and the threat it can pose to insurance and reinsurance portfolios, as well as the important role of hedging, including ILW's and the potential ramifications of Covid-19 for the ILS and reinsurance community.