Andrew Beecroft, Managing Director, GC Securities*

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New capital inflows, excess capacity and benign catastrophe loss activity have contributed to falling (re)insurance prices and a challenging environment for specialty (re)insurers. These combined factors have been the rationale for predictions of a wave of market consolidation, which appear to have become a reality during 2015 as a series of rumors and announcements grabbed the headlines. 

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James Wrynn, Mark Shumway, Managing Directors and Graham Jones, Andrew Cox and Markus Mueller, Senior Vice Presidents 

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In the wake of the global financial crisis in 2008, significant regulatory change aimed at preventing/mitigating future crises was implemented. While the U.S. insurance regulatory framework did remarkably well in the protection of insurance consumers and companies in the United States during the financial crisis, it was, and will be affected by these reforms. Today, the results are having a profound impact on companies’ balance sheets and risk management practices. Although primarily aimed at larger, global insurers, the changes are so extensive that they may impact medium and small insurers to some extent. The question that most (re)insurers are asking today is how can they cope with the myriad regulatory, legislative and ratings changes and continue to maximize opportunities and maintain profitable growth. 

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Frank Achtert, Managing Director, and Markus Mueller, Senior Vice President, GC Strategic Advisory℠

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After a long period of discussion and many delays, the new European insurance regulatory regime, Solvency II, will commence in January 2016. The rules will be compulsory for all insurance and reinsurance companies and groups in the European Economic Area. The Solvency II rules were developed over a period of more than 15 years, and there are many reasons for the long delay. Two notable reasons are differing business models from country to country and pressure on long-term guarantee products in the private pension system created by the low interest rate environment.

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Jonathan Clark and Christopher Sykes, Managing Directors

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Fiscal constraints are increasing across many developed and emerging economies amid growing catastrophic loss potential brought on by the geopolitical climate, demographic trends and global climate change. As a result, heads of government, international trade organizations and private sector risk bearers are increasing their calls to reexamine the roles and responsibilities of society to better manage these complicated risks.

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Will Garland, Managing Director

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Technological progress is accelerating at a rapid pace and with it are the risks and opportunities that accompany those changes in many different segments of our economy:

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Challenging market conditions due to abundant capacity, the ongoing influx of new capital and limited loss experience, continue to put pressure on the reinsurance sector, while recent M&A activity is adding a new dynamic to the mix. This is according to the panel of speakers at the eighth annual press briefing held at the Reinsurance Rendez-Vous 2015 in Monte Carlo, by Guy Carpenter & Company, LLC, a leading global risk and reinsurance specialist and a wholly owned subsidiary of Marsh & McLennan Companies.

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Alex Moczarski, President and CEO, Guy Carpenter and Chairman, Marsh & McLennan Companies International, provides concluding remarks at the Guy Carpenter press briefing at the Monte Carlo Rendez-Vous in this GC Capital Ideas videocast.

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Assessing the impact of the continuing influx of capital into the reinsurance sector,  David Priebe, Vice Chairman, Guy Carpenter, commented on ILS pricing levels. He said: “We believe current price levels for ILS could be a ‘golden compromise’ in which protection buyers perceive good value for fixed-price multi-year cover and investors continue to broaden and diversify their portfolio of holdings. With costs of issue falling and time-to-market shortening, this equilibrium could provide a substantial boost to the market that the record issuance of early 2015 portends.”

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Alex Moczarski, President and Chief Executive Officer, Guy Carpenter & Company, and Chairman, Marsh & McLennan Companies International, introduces the Guy Carpenter press briefing at the Monte Carlo Rendez-Vous in this GC Capital Ideas videocast.

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Focusing on the Asian market, James Nash, CEO of Asia-Pacific Operations, Guy Carpenter, highlighted the increasing flow of capital from the region into Europe, Lloyd’s and the US. He said: “Asia is perceived as a growth opportunity and is attracting capital from mature markets, but it is actually Asian capital seeking opportunities overseas which is the headline story this year. In 2015, Asia-Pacific has been a net exporter of insurance and reinsurance capital through M&A, with Japan and China leading the charge into Europe, Lloyd’s and the US. In the year to September 2015, outbound deals totaled USD20 billion compared with inbound deals of only USD849 million.” Looking ahead, he added: “We expect the M&A trend to continue as insurers, reinsurers and funds in the region pursue growth and diversification by going West, but we also anticipate a larger number of intra-region deals and also capital from the West coming East.”

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