The property catastrophe reinsurance market saw a “more consistent trading rhythm” at the 1/1 2024 renewals, but still some clients have been left holding more volatility, according to Guy Carpenter CEO Dean Klisura.
Speaking just now, during the Marsh McLennan fourth-quarter earnings call, reinsurance broking division Guy Carpenter’s CEO said that reinsurers held onto the hard-won terms and conditions, meaning cedents are still attaching higher up and retaining more risk.
“We saw a balanced reinsurance renewal,” Klisura explained.
Saying that, “Overall, capacity was adequate for the completion of most programmes across products and classes of business.”
He went on to say that available reinsurance capacity did increase in time for the January 2024 renewals, with dedicated reinsurance capital rising in the double-digits, by Guy Carpenter’s measure.
“Turning to property cat, it was a more consistent trading rhythm than last year,” Klisura said. “Capacity overall was adequate to cover most non-frequency exposed layers.”
He went on to say that, “Reinsurers held firm on terms and conditions. Attachment points did not come down, so reinsurers held on to what they achieved in 2023, continuing to expose our clients balance-sheets to attritional volatility moving forward. So that certainly didn’t change.”
But overall, Klisura said it was a “positive renewal.”
The Guy Carpenter CEO further explained that clients had bought more protection near the top of property cat reinsurance towers at the 1/1 renewal.
“Clients were able to get more capacity than last year to achieve their objectives,” Klisura said.
On rate increases, he further explained, “For clients with non-loss-impacted portfolios, they saw a range of flat to high single-digit kind of rate increases. For clients with cat losses, you know, were in the 10% to 30% rate increase range, right.
“So, I think that was pretty robust, in both the US and European markets.”
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