Artemis Live: Interview with James Vickers, Chairman, Willis Re International

Our latest Artemis Live video interview features James Vickers, Chairman of Willis Re International, part of the global reinsurance broking unit of Willis Towers Watson, who joined us to discuss reinsurance market performance and capital trends.

James Vickers and I discussed how Willis Re’s reinsurance clients are finding market conditions in the context of the steady firming, even hardening, seen across recent renewal seasons.

We discussed global reinsurance capital levels and why, despite the industry being well-capitalised and having bounced back strongly from the pandemic, we continue to see positive rate momentum and haven’t returned to a softening cycle as yet.

On market conditions for Willis Re’s clients, Vickers explained, “For some clients, they’re seeing a fairly gentle increase. They haven’t produced much in the way of reinsurance losses and to be fair if they look at their reinsurance over a long-term basis they have enjoyed, certainly the last seven, eight maybe nine years, some susbstantial rate reductions. So, some gentle firming is something that they can cope with and is a reasonable outcome.”

Vickers also discussed some of the underlying features of reinsurer performance at this time, explaining the challenges that reinsurers face in a low interest rate world, but also what has been helping keep them profitable.

He also stressed the need for underwriting returns to improve further, particularly when some reinsurers have new capital investors to satisfy at this time.

We also discussed the recent performance of the insurance-linked securities (ILS) market and Vickers explained that he feels ILS funds and investors have learned a lot after some more challenging years, which he believes means the discipline being seen in ILS capital deployment is set to continue.

Finally, Vickers shared his market outlook, saying that he sees no reason for firming rates not to continue at this time.

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 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.

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