Video from ILS NYC 2022 conference. Session 1: Predictable

At our recent ILS NYC 2022 conference in New York, speakers discussed the need to deliver a more predictable experience, where possible, to stakeholders such as insurance-linked securities (ILS) investors and reinsurance counterparties, during the first session of the day which is now available to view online.

This video is of the first session from our Artemis ILS NYC 2022 conference, held in New York City on April 22nd, 2022, 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 adjusted to another year of catastrophe losses.

This was the first session of the conference and featured a focused discussion on the importance of the insurance-linked securities (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.

The full video is close to an hour long and there are some fantastic insights shared by the speakers, who took the discussion onto what they’d like to see coming next, from a more predictable asset class.

Session leader Ben Fox of Hiscox ILS set the scene, saying it had been 805 days since the last Artemis ILS conference in New York, when the topic of discussion was the resilience of the asset class.

“Thankfully, since then, not much has happened. We’ve had the worst pandemic in over a century, 2020 saw the most active hurricane season on record, it saw the costliest US convective storm season on record. 2021, in terms of losses, was the fourth costliest Nat cat year on record. We had Uri, the costliest winter storm on record. We had Bernd, the costliest European windstorm event on record and then we had Ida as well, the costliest US hurricane since Katrina,” Fox explained.

Cory Anger of GC Securities responded by saying, “One of the things that’s been helpful is, we’ve really had robust growth in execution in the ILS market, despite the challenges of not being able to physically be with our clients to structure these solution and market these solutions.

“So, it’s been quite remarkable that we can take two years and still continue on a growth trajectory in the ILS space. It’s been extremely active.”

Matthew Berdoff, of Hudson Structured, said he hopes to see more expansion of the ILS asset class in time, while learnings from recent history are embedded in the product offering.

“Looking farther down the road, two, three, five years, hopefully we’re having a panel with discussions on different types of ILS, not just focused on property cat.

“That there’s continued growth in the market to build a real insurance-linked securities complex around different types of insurance-linked risk, outside of traditional property cat. I think that’s the way the market continues to really expand and become institutionalized,” Berdoff said.

A later panel session focused on new and diversifying categories of ILS risk and we’ll publish that video in the coming weeks.

Matthew Ball, of WTW, highlighted the need for continuous improvement, saying, “I think the key is, if we look back in five years’ time, the industry will be much better at reserve risk and liquidity management, and I think that will naturally open up some more non-cat lines, right?

“I mean, if you seriously want to get into casualty, you have to be very good at managing that collateral release, otherwise the product doesn’t work.”

GC’s Anger summed up, “I think that when we are facing turbulent times on the property cat side, it basically shuts down our ability to think about innovation because of the construct of the money that’s in the space.

“If we had money that’s more willing to diversify and look at other perils, that is a catalyst for us to be moving on creating structures around that.”

The full video interview is embedded below and can also be viewed in full, along with previous Artemis Live video interviews, over on our YouTube channel.

You can also listen in audio to all of our interviews by subscribing to the Artemis Live podcast here.

All of our Artemis Live video interviews have a focus on reinsurance, ILS and the efficiency of risk transfer and can be accessed directly from our YouTube Channel.

You can also listen in audio to these interviews by subscribing to the Artemis Live podcast here.

Thank you to all of the kind sponsors of our ILS NYC 2022 conference for their support. For all enquiries regarding sponsorship opportunities at future Artemis events please contact us.