Reinsurance renewals news

Property catastrophe reinsurance rates-on-line continued to fall at the April 1st renewals and for the United States, broker Guy Carpenter’s index now shows that 2026 is experiencing the sharpest fall in US property cat pricing since 2014.

Alternative reinsurance capital is reinforcing current reinsurance market trends as total non-life insurance-linked securities (ILS) assets reached $135 billion at year-end 2025, a 19% increase year-on-year.

The outstanding market for collateralized reinsurance sidecar structures grew by more than $5 billion in capacity terms over the course of full-year 2025, with casualty and non-catastrophe vehicles a key driver of sidecar market expansion, Aon Securities has said.

The Japanese market represents a material opportunity for future expansion in non-cat sidecars as the broader non-cat sidecar market continues to grow through an influx of new sponsors and heightened activity, according to Bill Dubinsky, Managing Director and Chairman of Gallagher Securities.

Global demand for reinsurance increased by approximately 10% at the April 1st reinsurance renewals, as buyers capitalised on favourable market conditions to secure more comprehensive protection, with some expected to return to the market post-renewal to explore additional purchases, according to broker Aon’s April renewal report.

Alternative or third-party reinsurance capital, so that deployed through insurance-linked securities and related collateralized structures, grew by 18% over the course of 2025 and 10% just in the fourth-quarter to reach a record $136 billion at the end of the year, according to the latest estimate from broker Aon.

Reinsurance broker Gallagher Re has reported that Japanese property catastrophe programmes ran loss free, leading to risk-adjusted rate decreases of between -15% and -17.5% at the April 1st, 2026, reinsurance renewals, while property catastrophe in other regions saw risk-adjusted rate decreases of between -7.5% and -25%.

The April 1st reinsurance renewals saw a continuation of the softening trend, with risk-adjusted property catastrophe rates-on-line returning to levels last seen in the early 2020’s, according to broker Howden Re.

US insurer Progressive expanded its aggregate excess-of-loss reinsurance protection at the start of 2026 and has also renewed a hurricane season focused shared reinsurance limit arrangement to cover losses from any storms this year.

A new report from reinsurance broker Howden Re suggests that as natural catastrophe losses continue to rise and pricing tailwinds continue to fade, current reinsurance market conditions present a critical opportunity to reassess protection and get ahead of the next phase of the cycle.