Monte Carlo Reinsurance Rendez-Vous news

A recent survey of protection buyers shows that the largest share of respondents agree that traditional reinsurance capacity is the key driver of price competition in the property marketplace, while the availability of alternative and insurance-linked securities capital is seen as a much less significant factor.

With record levels of capital in the reinsurance sector and a growing insurance-linked securities market with a broadening investor base, executives at Aon said today that there are more savings to come for clients, with property rates likely to fall in the region of 10% at the January 1 2027 renewal.

As the insurance-linked securities (ILS) and reinsurance markets adapt to an evolving risk landscape spanning geopolitics, climate, and artificial intelligence (AI), new capital structures are emerging to meet growing demand, and Oak Global plans to leverage investor diversification to capture these opportunities, according to CEO and Founder, Cathal Carr.

In a reinsurance and retrocession market environment where prices have softened considerably but underwriters can still find attractive returns, broker Howden Re urges cedents to ensure their resilience by looking across the full-range of capital solutions and forms, to maintain flexibility and optionality through cycles.

During reinsurance broker Gallagher Re’s Pre-Monte Carlo Media Briefing, Will Thompson, Head of Global Clients, said alternative capital is no longer a separate conversation from traditional reinsurance and is now an integral part of the capital stack.

Laurent Rousseau, CEO of Global Capital & Advisory, and Europe and IMEA at Marsh Re, said today that the capital markets are “no longer a visitor” but “now a resident” of the reinsurance industry, as investors increasingly allocate to the space.

Global credit rating agency AM Best has maintained its stable outlook on the global non-life reinsurance segment, assessing that the market “remains fundamentally strong” despite clear softening in property, challenges in certain classes of casualty in the US, and an overall competitive landscape.

As the casualty insurance-linked securities (ILS) market continues to expand, rating agency AM Best has indicated that market participants will need to remain focused on ensuring that both underwriting discipline and risk transparency develop simultaneously in order to keep pace with investor demand.

While the insurance-linked securities (ILS) market has been growing at a strong pace, thanks in the main to record levels of catastrophe bond issuance, rating agency AM Best believes that while this contributed to reinsurance market softening, the deployment of traditional capacity is still more impactful.

As use of third-party capital within life annuity reinsurance structures including sidecar vehicles increases, a new estimate from reinsurance broker Guy Carpenter, as reported by rating agency AM Best, suggests around one-third of capacity is now from third-party investor sources.