retro

Howden Tiger, the reinsurance broking and risk capital management arm of Howden, has strengthened its property retrocession broking team with the addition of Martin Ford, a long-standing specialist in the retro space.

Marcel Grandi, Head of ILS Sourcing at insurance-linked securities (ILS) and reinsurance asset manager, Twelve Capital, expects price increases to be limited in 2024, but is positive for the future as reinsurers continue to cede a sizeable portion of their exposure to the retrocession market.

Having significantly increased the amount of risk it cedes to retrocession partners at the start of this year, Hannover Re is now looking at the flexibility it has in the retro program and may opt to cede less to proportional retrocession partners next year, one of its Board Members said today.

Markel CATCo Investment Management, the retrocessional reinsurance specialist investment manager arm of Markel, is still running-off its portfolio of risk and in the last quarter of record managed to recover additional value as favourable development of its side pocket loss reserves continued.

The retrocessional reinsurance market capital supply remains disciplined, which means capacity for retro protections is still not abundant and so this has been creating some difficulty for reinsurance firms that have relied on it in the past, Fitch Ratings has said.

German reinsurer Hannover Re has purchased a significant amount of retrocession protection in 2023, and while this has limited its growth appetite in the natural catastrophe space, the company has sufficient room to expand its appetite should opportunities present themselves, according to Sven Althoff, Member of the Executive Board, P&C, Hannover Re.

At the mid-year reinsurance renewals our market sources are suggesting that availability of retrocession is far better than was seen at 1/1, with rate increases also decelerating more than had perhaps been anticipated just weeks ago.

Having reported favourable development of its side pocket loss reserves through the final quarter of 2022, the CATCo retrocessional reinsurance investment portfolio saw this trend continue in Q1 of 2023 as well, with further gains made.

The running-off of the Markel CATCo Investment Management portfolios of retrocessional reinsurance continues apace, with additional favourable development booked in the first-quarter of 2023, and now just 10 open contracts said remaining at the Markel CATCo Re reinsurance vehicle.

At the January renewals, global reinsurance firm Hannover Re capitalised on its long-standing relationships with investors to grow its K-Cession quota share sidecar structure to a record size, ultimately helping the company do more to support its ceding clients demand for natural catastrophe capacity.