Here we highlight the most popular stories among last week’s GC@MC series, which featured our review of critical issues shaping the reinsurance industry that were the focus of discussions at the Rendez-Vous de Septembre. Looking Beyond the Clouds; A Cyber Insurance Industry Catastrophe Loss Study: Because it is essential to develop a deep understanding of the ... Continue Reading »
GC@MC Commentary 2019
Volatility Management within the New Life Reinsurance Paradigm – GC@MC Commentary
Life insurers typically purchase reinsurance covers to achieve four main goals – capital management, catastrophe protection, volatility mitigation and product support. In some instances, each of the solutions are separately decisioned and purchased, but frequently may be combined into one reinsurance program. In today’s environment, an analysis that challenges the usual life ... Continue Reading »
InsurTech is Advancing at an Ever-Increasing Pace – GC@MC Commentary
Fear of disruption was pervasive early in the “InsurTech” era, stemming from indications that major technology companies were entering the sector, such as “Googlezilla”(1) in 2014; Apple’s telematics focused patent activity; (2) and more recently; Amazon’s exploration of insurance aggregator opportunities in the United Kingdom. More current and pressing challenges to incumbency ... Continue Reading »
Wildfire Risk and Underwriting Strategy – GC@MC Commentary
In 2018, California suffered its most costly and deadly fire season to date. The year’s costliest insured loss event was California’s Camp Fire at USD 12 billion — also the most destructive fire in the state’s history. Additionally in 2018, over 100 people perished in wildfires in Greece; British Columbia, Canada, suffered its worst wildfire season in history; in Australia, ... Continue Reading »
Terror: The Role of Technology and Analytics – GC@MC Commentary
Terrorism, political violence and other malicious acts differ from other insurable perils in that they are dynamic and adaptive; there is human intent driving the probability and willing the impacts to change. Historic incidents show past trends, but those are only partial drivers of future trends as terrorists adapt their tactics in response to past effectiveness and current ... Continue Reading »
Structured Capital Partnerships: An Evolution of the P&C Reinsurance Business Model – GC@MC Commentary
Over the past two decades, alternative capital has grown to represent almost a quarter of the total reinsurance industry capital. Insurance-linked securities (ILS), sidecars and collateralized reinsurance continue to provide valuable capacity to (re)insurers, corporates, and public sector entities to efficiently manage capital and risk alongside traditional market solutions, ... Continue Reading »
IFRS 17 and the Value of Reinsurance: An Opportunity in the Challenge – GC@MC Commentary
International Financial Reporting Standard (IFRS) 17, issued by the International Accounting Standards Board, is the new financial reporting standard for insurance contracts that will replace the current rules of IFRS 4 and will become effective on January 1, 2022. IFRS 17 will impact the insurance value chain far beyond the areas of actuarial modeling and financial reporting. ... Continue Reading »
Looking Beyond the Clouds: A Cyber Insurance Industry Catastrophe Loss Study – GC@MC Commentary
Because it is essential to develop a deep understanding of the characteristics of cyber catastrophe events and the financial impact they could have on the standalone cyber insurance market as it exists today, CyberCube Analytics (1) and Guy Carpenter have collaborated to help (re)insurers quantify cyber risk by pooling data resources and analytics capabilities to cultivate a ... Continue Reading »
The Changing Nature of Risk – GC@MC Commentary
In a report published this month by Guy Carpenter, we analyze how an accumulation of losses from recent extreme weather events, the specter of climate change and higher loss cost trends in a number of long-tail business lines are forcing carriers to reassess views of risk. Capital inflow levels and risk appetites are responding accordingly, according to Robert Bentley, CEO, ... Continue Reading »