Analysis and insights on the global reinsurance and specialty markets

Upstream shuffle?

“Nothing stands still for long in the Energy insurance markets,” notes Willis Towers Watson (WTW) in its Energy Market Review 2019.

London’s aviators continue to play musical chairs as rates and losses climb

The London aviation market is in a state of flux – witnessing a string of people moves spurred on by M&A and new broking and underwriting entrants against a backdrop of large losses, regulatory scrutiny, capacity withdrawals and hardening rates.

A brief history of Canadian pension funds’ love of insurance

Canadian pension funds in recent years have made large direct investments in insurance players like Ascot, Allied World, AmWINS and USI. The signs are that investment activity may increase this year.

Lloyd’s syndicates’ 2017 forecasts finally stabilises after Irma creep

Lloyd’s troubled 2017 year of account is finally stabilising after a series of quarters where syndicates scrambled to update their estimates in response to loss creep from the year’s cat events.

How BI drove Jebi’s surprising loss creep

(Re)insurers’ first quarter results included another round of reserve increases for Typhoon Jebi. An analysis of their earnings calls reveals insight into Jebi’s unusually large loss creep.

The great D&F revival?

With the three market gorillas – AIG, FM Global and Lloyd’s – all scaling back significantly, 2019 looks to provide propitious rating conditions for those staying in the D&F space.

Florida market set for “mayhem” in late and uncertain renewal

Florida buyers, brokers and reinsurers are set for a manic last two-and-a-half weeks of the renewal season with an influx of firm order terms (FOTs) expected next week and risk-adjusted rate increases that look set to average around 20 percent but could be significantly higher on some accounts.

Time to worry about TRIPRA again

The end of 2020 feels a long time away. But, as a note from AM Best makes clear, insurers with US terrorism exposure should start worrying about it now.

MPL market struggling with shrinking demand, soft pricing

Berkshire Hathaway is by far the biggest writer of US medical professional liability insurance, a market that is facing falling demand, soft market pricing, reform challenges and dwindling reserve redundancies, an AM Best report has revealed.

Brokers and UWs at RIMS agree on firming commercial insurance market

The shift in US commercial insurance pricing momentum highlighted in the Q1 earnings season was even more pronounced at RIMS last week as brokers and carriers were unusually aligned in their characterization of a transitioning market.

Umbrella and excess casualty gets hard as insurers retrench

Brokers in the large commercial casualty market are finding placements increasingly challenging as carriers in lead umbrella and excess layers cut capacity and push for meaningful rate increases, The Insurer can reveal.

Florida FOTs highlight differentiated market for reinsurance buying

Data points are emerging from the flurry of Florida firm order terms (FOTs) issued in the last few days that support the prediction of more moderate risk-adjusted price increases for carriers perceived by reinsurers as better-quality risks, The Insurer can reveal.

Cyber’s great reassessment: the year of affirmative action

The cyber risk market is being reshaped. Leading insurers are slashing coverage under traditional policies while many others are conducting internal reviews to either affirmatively cover silent cyber exposures or take them off their books – a shift observers say there is no going back from.

Trust Re faces tough challenge to restore credibility

Bahrain-based Trust Re has finally published its long-delayed financial statements for 2017 revealing a mass cull to its executive team, a year-long investigation into its finances by the Bahraini financial watchdog, multiple regulatory breaches and a colossal $92.5mn black hole within the carrier’s solvency margin.

Property leads firming US commercial insurance market: WTW

As insurance buyers prepare for RIMS in Boston next week there is further evidence of a hardening market for US commercial insurance, with Willis Towers Watson expecting firming prices “almost universally” across the sector for the rest of this year.

Universal: outlier or bellwether for a hard Florida renewal?

Reinsurers have been aggressively talking the talk ahead of the upcoming mid-year Florida renewal.

Rays of legislative hope in the Sunshine State?

Florida’s House of Representatives has passed legislation reforming assignment of benefits (AOB), increasing the state cat fund’s reimbursement retention and tweaking surplus lines rules. The Insurer analyses the odds of the state’s Senate turning any of that into reality and reveals the bills (re)insurers should be watching.

This year’s top insurance model

The topics of the best model for starting up in the (re)insurance industry and how existing companies must evolve their business models to stay ahead were discussed by senior executives at a roundtable held in New York by The Insurer – in association with Lloyds Bank.

Leading insurtechs growing fast, profits harder to find

An analysis of six prominent insurtechs with US statutory entities reveals consistently impressive premium growth figures but widely varying expense figures and underwriting losses for most.

Tax fallout will affect US P&C insurers’ 2019 decisions: AM Best

US property casualty insurers will continue to face numerous challenges in 2019 – new technologies, changes in the global economy, tax reform, the phaseout of Libor and more – which may provide opportunities to transform their business, AM Best has said in a new report.

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