ABR Re, Chubb & Blackrock reinsurance J/V, hires Underwriting Director

ABR Reinsurance Capital Holdings Ltd. (ABR Re), the total-return or investment oriented reinsurance joint-venture vehicle established by re/insurer Chubb alongside asset manager Blackrock, has hired a new Underwriting Director.

Sean Ramlal was hired by and joined ABR Re towards the end of 2018, we understand, taking on the role of Underwriting Director which sees him with responsibility for the underwriting of all lines of treaty reinsurance business at the reinsurer.

ABR Re was originally established by ACE, prior to Chubb’s acquisition of the firm, alongside asset management giant Blackrock in 2015, as $800m was raised in a private placement and the pair each took minority stakes.

ABR Re launched to follow a strategy of assuming risk solely from Chubb (previously ACE), risk that had previously been ceded to the private reinsurance market so offering a cost-effective reinsurance alternative.

Meanwhile Blackrock manages the investment side of the business, seeking to provide an edge in terms of investment return.

As a result, the third-party investors that back ABR Re benefit two-fold, from underwriting profits due to ABR Re’s reinsuring of a wide range of Chubb’s primary insurance business, as well as from income and capital appreciation generated by the Blackrock investment management.

For Chubb the vehicle offers an efficient source of reinsurance capacity backed by third-party investors, while the added investment income helps to increase the efficiency of the vehicle even more for its sponsor. As a result it has become a more cost-effective place to cede risks to for Chubb than the broader reinsurance market.

Sean Ramlal joined ABR Re from his most recent role with QBE Re, where he was a Vice President and Treaty Reinsurance Underwriter for the reinsurance arm of the Australian headquartered insurer.

Before that he worked as a pricing actuary for Allied World, an actuarial analyst for insurer CNA and in claims for Platinum Re.

In the role of Underwriting Director for ABR Re, Ramlal will take on responsibility for the underwriting of a broad range of lines of reinsurance treaty business, from property catastrophe through to casualty and professional lines.

He will also help to assess claims that come into the ABR Re business and work alongside the other senior ABR Re leadership to determine loss reserves and in managing exposures and aggregates.

ABR Re acts like a self-reinsurance captive for Chubb, with an investment oriented approach to seeking a total-return and capitalised by third-party capital market investors.

It is a hybrid strategy that Chubb itself says little about, but which is known to help the firm in terms of capital efficiency and lowering its reinsurance costs. The efficiency of the ABR Re strategy also ensures Chubb can maximise the margin from every contract underwritten and that is ceded through to the vehicle.

While the third-party investors backing the vehicle get a reinsurance-linked return from a book that has been underwritten by Chubb as insurance business and then reinsured by Chubb’s own joint-venture vehicle.