Best of Artemis, week ending August 24th 2025

Here are the ten most popular news articles, week ending August 24th 2025, covering catastrophe bonds, ILS, reinsurance capital and related risk transfer topics. To ensure you never miss a thing subscribe to the weekly Artemis email newsletter updates or get our email alerts for every article we publish.


Ten most read articles on Artemis.bm, week ending August 24th 2025:

1. Hannover Re to expand direct ILS activities, launch Capital Partners platform in Bermuda
   Hannover Re is establishing a Bermuda based insurance-linked securities (ILS) platform named Hannover Re Capital Partners, as it looks to round-out its offering to ILS investors and the market.
2. Swiss Re & Berkshire Hathaway move to the top of AM Best’s global reinsurer rankings
   Reinsurance giant Swiss Re has taken over from Munich Re at the top of AM Best’s ranking of the world’s largest reinsurers for companies that report under IFRS 17, with Berkshire Hathaway taking the top spot for non-IFRS 17 reporters, based on year-end 2024 figures.
3. Cat bonds not pressuring reinsurance pricing, main competition is traditional: J.P. Morgan
   The catastrophe bond asset class, while growing strongly, is not seen as putting pricing pressure on reinsurers, with the main additional competition seen as coming from the traditional reinsurance market whose capital base has grown faster, analysts at J.P. Morgan have said.
4. Reinsurance sector is softer in 2025, but remains profitable: AM Best
   The reinsurance sector has rebounded since 2023 with stronger pricing and disciplined underwriting, helping companies generate solid profits and grow capital. As of mid-2025, the market remains stable, though there are early signs of modest softening at the highest layers of property reinsurance, according to AM Best.
5. Cat bond market assumes more wildfire risk in 2025 than any prior year
   The catastrophe bond market has shown increasing confidence in assuming wildfire risk even after the major disaster that struck the Los Angeles region of California at the start of this year, with already over $3.375 billion of cat bonds issued in 2025 that have an exposure to the wildfire peril.
6. Insurance-linked securities the “best asset class” from diversification perspective: VP Bank
   Insurance-linked securities (ILS) is the “best asset class from a diversification perspective,” according to private bank and asset manager VP Bank AG, with the current level of compensation for taking on catastrophe risk still seen as more than adequate even as hurricane season begins.
7. Property retro “buyer-favourable”, supply somewhat constrained: van der Straaten, Antares
   As the reinsurance market begins to look towards the end of year renewals and negotiations leading up to that, Mike van der Straaten, the CEO of Antares Global, has highlighted that while the property retrocession market is “buyer-favourable” at this time, capacity remains somewhat constrained.
8. Property cat still profitable as we enter hard market softening phase: Howden Re
   As per David Flandro, Managing Director, Head of Industry Analysis and Strategic Advisory at reinsurance broker Howden Re, “if it wasn’t obvious already, we are now firmly in the hard market softening phase of the rating cycle.”
9. Sidecar use continues to surge among life re/insurers: Fitch
   Partnerships between North American insurers and alternative investment managers are expected to continue to keep growing over the near term, particularly through sidecars and offshore reinsurance platforms.
10. Cedar Trace hires Patrick Witteveen as Head of Business Development
    Cedar Trace has made another senior appointment to its insurance-linked securities (ILS) platform, hiring Patrick Witteveen as Head of Business Development.

This is not every article published on Artemis during the last week, just the most popular among our readers over the last seven days. There were 24 new articles published in the last week.

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