Artemis Live - Insurance-linked securities (ILS), catastrophe bonds (cat bonds), reinsurance

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.