Here are the ten most popular news articles, week ending 15th November 2020, covering catastrophe bonds, ILS, reinsurance capital and related risk transfer topics.To ensure you never miss a thing or get our email alerts for every article we publish.Alphabet, Inc., the holding company for Google and its many units, has entered the catastrophe bond market for the first time, as the technology giant seeks $237.5 million of earthquake insurance protection that will be fully collateralized through the issuance of a Phoenician Re Ltd.

(Series 2020-1)  cat bond transaction to capital market investors.While much uncertainty remains around both the ultimate economic and insured loss from the ongoing Covid-19 pandemic, the industry loss appears to be trending lower than initial projections and actually, the re/insurance and insurance-linked securities (ILS) sectors have fared quite well, according to industry experts.The market for catastrophe bonds and related insurance-linked securities (ILS) has already broken the annual record for number of deals issued in 2020, as this year remains on-track to break the record for the dollar-amount issued as well.

Reinsurance giant Swiss Re is forecasting that global insurance premiums will return to growth in 2021, after having contracted in 2020 due to the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic.The flight to quality in the insurance-linked securities (ILS) market has been well-documented, as some investors have opted to shift allegiance to ILS fund managers that are deemed higher quality, due to their longevity, track-records, or affiliations.The parametric insurance and risk transfer market is evolving rapidly and its ability to provide what are perceived as cleaner contract terms, as well as greater certainty, looks set to be increasingly attractive to alternative sources of reinsurance capital.

Insurance and reinsurance industry losses from wildfires burning across western U.S.states including California, Oregon and Colorado are together expected to have already reached beyond $8 billion, according to the latest report from Aon’s Impact Forecasting.Although the last four years have been a challenging time for the ILS market in many ways, one positive development is that investors have become more discerning in their choice of fund managers, which could lead to the disappearance of “indifferent” funds, Quentin Perrot tells Artemis.

In light of its uncertain but apparent influence on both the frequency and severity of natural catastrophe events, it’s no surprise that climate change is at the forefront of the minds of catastrophe risk underwriters, investors and of course model vendors, but it’s important to remember that this is not the only uncertainty.After years of impressive growth, the volume of available alternative reinsurance capital has “stagnated” and with little growth expected for the remainder of 2020 and into next year, a structural breakthrough might be needed, according to analysis by Fitch Ratings.This is not every article published on Artemis during the last week, just the most popular, some of which were published over a week ago.

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