The National Flood Insurance Program (NFIP) is the primary underwriter of flood insurance policies in the United States. The program was established in 1968 through the passage of the National Flood Insurance Act. ... Continue Reading »
Hurricanes KRW
When Contract Certainty Isn’t So Certain
Richard Banyard, Senior Vice President, Lance Finley, Managing Director, Jane Furnas, Senior Vice President and Scott VanKoughnett, Senior Vice President Contact Insurance policies are carefully drafted to outline coverage that is needed by policyholders while also specifying those areas where coverage is not expected to apply - the goal is to provide contract certainty, not in ... Continue Reading »
Succeeding Under Solvency II, Reinsurance and Counterparty Risk: Impact of Solvency II on the Reinsurance Market
David Flandro, Global Head of Business Intelligence, Claude Lefebvre, Head of GC Analytics EMEA Region, Mark Shumway, Senior Vice President Contact Previous reports in our Succeeding Under Solvency II series focused on the capital requirements associated with Pillar I, corporate governance (Pillar II) and disclosure (Pillar III). In this briefing, the third in the series, we ... Continue Reading »
Tohoku Quake and Tsunami…An Industry Meets the Challenge – Economic Impact
David Flandro, Global Head of Business Intelligence Contact Now that we are more than a month on from the Great Tohoku Earthquake, the (re)insurance industry can take advantage of hindsight to understand the implications of this tragedy and take steps to improve capital management for the future, in order to better protect cedents and original insureds. Of course, the situation ... Continue Reading »
World Catastrophe Reinsurance Market 2009: A Changing Property-Catastrophe Reinsurance Industry
Christopher Klein, Global Head of Business Intelligence Contact Evolution of the Property-Catastrophe Reinsurance Market This year's 8 percent Guy Carpenter World ROL Index increase differs profoundly from the 65 percent surge that followed Hurricane Andrew and the 24 percent hike following the terror attacks of September 11, 2001 in the United States. Even after losing 18 ... Continue Reading »
Chart: Economic Loss from Natural Disasters
An industry defined by the transformative effects of shock losses changed again with Hurricanes Katrina, Rita, and Wilma and the 2006 reinsurance renewal - as combined insured losses reached USD60.5 billion. Despite the extent of the damage, these storms did not cause substantial losses of capital, as the rest of the property and casualty (P&C) insurance industry was highly ... Continue Reading »
Known Unknowns
Ryan Ogaard, Global Head of Instrat® The "black swan" is trumpeting! Last year, we saw the first-hand effects of random, unforeseen, and massive events. Catastrophe models -- the tools we use to forecast disaster and protect capital -- were shown to be quite fallible, leaving balance sheets exposed to more risk than carriers realized. Yet, maybe we've been a bit hasty in meting ... Continue Reading »
Workers Comp Stays Steady
Aaron Bueler, Managing Director Contact Workers compensation reinsurance pricing remained fairly flat at the January 1, 2009 renewal. Rates on line (ROL) declined slightly for multi-claimant catastrophe programs, and rate reductions for single-claimant exposed programs were slight (if not flat). Reinsurers had sought to turn the tide of rate and ROL decreases of 10 percent or ... Continue Reading »
A Tight Retro Market at 1/1
Christopher Klein, Managing Director Contact A late treaty retrocession renewal was characterized by reduced capacity and higher prices. Buyers grappled with uncertainty concerning their risk mitigation requirements, based on inward writings and an extremely limited market - especially for standard Ultimate Net Loss (UNL) retrocession protection. Although Hurricane Ike resulted ... Continue Reading »
Europe: A Change of Focus
David Flandro, Senior Vice President Contact European reinsurers are focused on two critical issues: residual exposure to risky assets and effective capital deployment. This is a stark change from the past two years, in which the return of capital to shareholders was the dominant priority for many. The excess capital positions of the years following Hurricanes Katrina, Rita, ... Continue Reading »
