Here are the ten most popular news articles, week ending 21st June 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.Expectations for further strong rate increases at the July 1st reinsurance renewals are clear, with analysts from KBW explaining that the market is discussing increases of between +5% to +15% for U.S.

southeast property catastrophe reinsurance programs, with retrocession rates seen up even more at +20% to +25%.Aeolus Capital Management Ltd., the Bermuda based reinsurance and insurance-linked securities (ILS) focused investment fund manager, has made a raft of leadership promotions within its business, as a natural progression following the 2017 buy-in of investment manager Elliott Management Corporation.Cat bond issuance has continued apace in recent weeks, with total catastrophe bond and related insurance-linked securities (ILS) issuance for 2020 so far now reaching almost $8.25 billion, according to Artemis’ Deal Directory data.

Windstorm focused primary insurance carrier Weston Insurance Company has had its rating withdrawn by Demotech, which market sources suggest may be partly down to challenges it faced in filling out its reinsurance tower at the recent renewals.Elevated catastrophe bond yields that are a result of investor demand for higher returns following heavy loss years and Covid-19-induced market disruption, “cannot be called the new normal,” according to John Seo of Fermat Capital Management, LLC.Global reinsurance broker Willis Re, part of the Willis Towers Watson group of companies, has announced the hiring of Kirsten van Exel, who was most recently an insurance-linked securities (ILS) underwriter for Netherlands headquartered global life insurance company, annuities provider and pension investment manager Aegon.

When thinking about the recent firming or even hardening of the Florida reinsurance market at the June renewals, it’s important to understand that even the rate increases achieved may not always be sufficient to cover the true cost of risk in the state, according to Ross Nottingham of Hiscox Re & ILS.As well as enhancing their returns thanks to rising pricing, insurance-linked securities (ILS) fund managers are seeking to capitalise on the hardening reinsurance and retrocession market in a number of other ways that could result in their portfolios delivering better returns and becoming less volatile.Capital top-ups, recapitalisation and fresh start-up capitalisation efforts are accelerating in insurance and reinsurance markets, as founders and investors look to make the most of the firming to hardening rate environment that is being seen widely across the sector.

Apollo Global Management has put its third-party capitalised sidecar vehicle for life and retirement investment opportunities, the Athene Co-Invest Reinsurance Affiliate (ACRA), to good use in completing a massive $27 billion fixed annuity block reinsurance transaction and investment in a subsidiary of Prudential plc.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..

To ensure you always stay up to date with Artemis and never miss a story subscribe to our weekly email newsletter which is delivered every Wednesday.Get listed in our ..

.———————————————————————.All of our Artemis Live insurance-linked securities (ILS), catastrophe bonds and reinsurance can be accessed online.Our can be subscribed to using the typical podcast services providers, including Apple, Google, Spotify and more.