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

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.