Archive for September, 2016

Super typhoon Meranti’s impact on China today provides a timely reminder of the opportunity for the insurance-linked securities (ILS) market in China, although it is unlikely to cause any significant loss to exposed collateralised reinsurance contracts, according to Ben Brookes of RMS.

Growing in life insurance risk as an asset class and helping re/insurers with their Solvency II capital needs by delivering structured products are both areas of focus for the future at Secquaero Advisors AG, according to CEO Dirk Lohmann.

The January 2017 reinsurance renewals are likely to see pricing and rates coming in below the stable levels that have been forecast by a number of large re/insurers, according to analysts at KBW reflecting on what they learned at the 2016 Monte Carlo Reinsurance Rendez-vous.

The reinsurance market has been in a softening phase for quite some time now, driving discussions about the bottom of the current cycle. And according to Swiss Re’s Matthias Weber, the bottom is either very near, or it’s already here.

Executives from global ratings agency Standard & Poor’s have underlined the growing influence of ILS capital in the global reinsurance landscape, a marketplace where ROEs are expected to continue to deteriorate as headwinds persist.

There is evidence that the “very quantitative” approach of the reinsurance and ILS market to underwriting peak catastrophe risk business is helping to support pricing discipline, according to rating agency A.M. Best.

At the annual meeting of the reinsurance industry in Monte Carlo, Thomas Blunck, a member of the Munich Re board of management, said that he expects the insurance-linked securities (ILS) space to continue on its current development path.

In the future the reinsurance market will find it increasingly difficult to sustain price increases after major losses, as the ILS sector has made contingency plans to inflow new capital rapidly post-event, according to Guy Carpenter Vice Chairman David Priebe.

Victor Peignet, CEO of SCOR Global P&C, the property and casualty division of the global reinsurance firm, is not a fan of broker facilities because there is no “skin in the game”.

Standard & Poor’s notes that were it not for the benign catastrophe loss experience of recent years and higher reserve releases reinsurers’ return on capital would have failed to exceed cost of capital levels in 2015 and so far in 2016, suggesting that a truly soft market is nearing.