2016 was a challenging year for the ILS market, as cat bond issuance activity and fundraising intakes slowed down, while catastrophe activity returned to average levels after a couple of benign years.
But this slowdown may have even played a role in helping drive some of the innovation that went on last year.
The ILS market is becoming ever more diverse as it matures and as different participants head off in pursuit of their own individual vision for growth.
From deals such as the casualty ILS issuance Horse Capital for Generali, to the fund managers who are building up new access routes to allow them take on risk from the deeper insurance markets, there was a wide variety of contenders for our awards judges to consider this year.
I'd like to take this opportunity to thank our judges from the industry - Trevor Bolt, Simon Cloney, Dan Ozizmir and Morton Lane - for the time they volunteered and for their spirited contributions to our debates on the outcome.
I'd also like to say a brief thank you to all those who entered and to congratulate those who made it to the final - your hard work and dedication certainly gave the judges a tough task when it came to picking the winners amongst you.
Additionally, as has become tradition, we declared an unofficial Trading Risk award - the Cat bond cat transaction title of the year. But as 2016 was a bit of a wild west year for the cat bond market, the new deal pipeline was running low and risk appetites were running high.
Admittedly we didn't have much of a shortlist of new titles to consider and it's perhaps no surprise that Bonanza Re took out the award in the face of the noble steed Horse Capital.
As the ILS market is now quickly charging into a much more active 2017, we shall see you again next year to recognise more winners!
To view our post-event supplement, please click here.
Fiona Robertson,
Editor, Trading Risk