Hanspeter Hilfiker, Senior Vice President
Contact

2008 Reinsurance Market Position

Earthquake is covered through an Interkantonaler Rückversicherungs-Verband (IRV) fund in 18 of the 19 monopoly cantons. It has a total capacity of CHF2 billion (USD 1.8 billion). The earthquake coverage provided by the monopoly insurers is voluntary and does not require any additional premium. One monopoly insurer, Zurich Cantonal Institute, covers earthquake for buildings in the remaining canton; it has capacity of around CHF 1billion (USD 0.9 billion). In addition to earthquake, the IRV covers its elemental perils exposure with stop-loss cover with capacity of up to CHF550 million (USD 500 million).

Continue reading…

Stephanie Vogg, Vice President
Contact

2008 Reinsurance Market Position

For several years, catastrophe modeling has provided the basis for decisions on levels of reinsurance retentions and limits. All well-known modeling firms have products for modeling German storms. Some reinsurers also have developed in-house tools to estimate catastrophe exposure. The availability of new flood models and the density of extended elemental perils coverage in the primary insurance market have increased. Consequently, cedents have had a closer look at their catastrophe exposure. This, in turn, has lead to the purchase of some additional capacity.

Continue reading…

Hamish Dowlen, Senior Vice President
Contact

2008 Reinsurance Market Position

The Romanian market is currently awaiting the implementation of an earthquake and flood pool. This is expected to reduce insurers’ first-loss exposure to these perils for residential risks. Until the pool is implemented, a number of local catastrophe programs can be bought.

Continue reading…