24 years of Artemis, over $153bn of catastrophe bonds & ILS tracked

Artemis is 24 years old today. On the 12th of May 1999, Artemis was formally launched to an audience of reinsurance and capital market executives at an event held in Bermuda.

We’ve been tracking the catastrophe bond market and the development of insurance-linked securities (ILS) as a core component of global reinsurance capacity since that time.

The Artemis Deal Directory actually began its life as a listing of the very earliest catastrophe bonds on another website back in late 1996.

But as soon as this market that had captured our attention began to expand, Artemis was created in late 1998 and launched to the world in 1999.

Our aim, back then, was to create an online home for the emerging catastrophe bond and insurance-linked securities (ILS) sector, fostering the development of capital market investor direct participation in reinsurance related risk transfer.

We wanted to facilitate timely, relevant, and accurate information flow for ILS and reinsurance professionals, to support their work and operations in the market.

While also becoming an educational source for an expected-to-grow investor base, explaining insurance-linked securities (ILS) to potential investors, as well as broadening the awareness and understanding of cat bonds and ILS as a risk transfer option for protection buyers.

While our goal hasn’t changed significantly over the 24 years, the market has and dramatically so. Through the growth of insurance-linked securities (ILS) and the use of alternative reinsurance capacity, its greatly increased importance within re/insurance capital flows, as well as developing into an asset class with value for institutional investors.

The industry is just as fascinating to us as it was back in 1999 and the potential for capital market investors to provide risk capital, to support and augment reinsurance markets worldwide, remains a true opportunity, for risk bearers and those investors alike.

Artemis continues to facilitate education, information provision and transparency within the ILS and cat bond asset class, and through our work we hope to stimulate an ongoing conversation about how capital drives innovation and disruption within the insurance and reinsurance sector, which we still firmly believe has been a game-changer for the reinsurance market paradigm.

At the same time, in the 24 years Artemis has existed, we’ve had the honour to get to know some of the brightest, most generous with their time, and sharpest minds in the reinsurance and capital markets.

It’s a privilege to call many of our readers our good friends and we’re proud Artemis has become so deeply embedded within ILS sector information provision and decision-making.

The catastrophe bond and related insurance-linked securities Deal Directory remains central to Artemis and is the most widely used data source on the ILS market available today.

Since we began collecting the data, we’ve now tracked an incredible 937 individual transactions in the Artemis Deal Directory.

One of our data sets that goes back that far now shows over $151 billion in cumulative issued and priced 144a catastrophe bonds, private cat bonds and cat bonds covering other lines of insurance or reinsurance business tracked.

While this total, of cumulative issuance tracked by Artemis (excluding any mortgage ILS deals) is now over $153 billion if you include the new cat bond issues yet to price but listed in our Deal Directory today.

The ILS market has expanded significantly since our formal launch back in 1999, when it really was a tiny speck on the shoulder of reinsurance.

Artemis only emerged as a website concept thanks to the visionary Rowan Douglas, now of WTW, who I was privileged to work for and call my co-founder in Artemis.

At the time of launching Artemis, we felt there were perhaps 200 people in the world that we really wanted to become our readers.

Now, 24 years later, Artemis averages as many as 80,000 readers in a single month, at its peak, averaging around the 60,000 monthly reader mark. We now hold some of the largest ILS conferences ever seen and have a fanatical following across all social media platforms.

The interest in ILS and reinsurance an alternative investment opportunity continues to build and expand around the globe.

Artemis will be there to cover this continued evolution of the ILS and reinsurance marketplace and we look forward to continuing to serve our readers and event attendees.

The 24 years of Artemis so far have been a pleasure and an education for me personally as well, while also enabling me to make friendships with some of the smartest people I have ever met.

I’d like to extend a personal thank you to all of our readers, contributors, sponsors, advertisers, partners and good friends from the industry and further afield.

The relationships that have been created over the last 24 years of Artemis are truly valued by me.

I and the team here look forward to continuing to work closely with the industry, make new connections and deepen relationships.

Best wishes and I hope you continue to enjoy Artemis!

Steve Evans
Owner & Editor, Artemis.bm.

As is customary when I post an article reflecting on Artemis’ history, here are some reminders of the evolution of Artemis since its launch in 1999. Points go to anyone who remembers the very first iteration of Artemis.

The first image below shows exactly how Artemis looked on the day it launched, 12th May 1999, taken from an original press release about the launch event.

The fact that the top headline covered the potential for growth in cat bond issuance by corporate sponsors is particularly interesting, given that is a topic that continues to be discussed today.

This image below shows Artemis in late 2000, around 18 months after its launch. Not much had changed, but deal-flow was accelerating and things were starting to get interesting in the emerging ILS world.

This image below shows how Artemis looked in 2004.

From 2008 to late 2018 Artemis looked similar to this, but during that time our readership grew from just 1,000 readers per month to more than 50,000, over that decade.

While the look and functionality of Artemis is now dramatically different, not least our wealth of data services, we remain open and accessible, with a singular goal to drive quality information about the ILS asset class to anyone wanting to learn more about it and track deal flow.

Stay tuned, there are more Artemis developments in our pipeline and we look forward to continuing to serve our readers for years to come!