Willis Re 1st View January 2019: Contrasting Realities

Willis Re has released the January edition of its thrice-annual update of global reinsurance market conditions.

Key findings

• Reinsurance placements at January 1, 2019, highlight a pricing gap between accounts with peak peril exposures or poor loss records and the rest, with many reinsurers placing emphasis on the quality of client counterparties.
• In property catastrophe renewals, cedants with good loss records and a disciplined, early renewal process achieved risk-adjusted rate reductions, while loss impacted accounts are seeing upward pricing across a number of lines.
• The insurance-linked securities (ILS) market faces a more comprehensive test in the absence of a major pricing uptick following significant loss erosion for some funds in both 2017 and 2018, and some funds are challenged in attracting new investors.
• Some primary lines are seeing significantly larger rate increases than treaty reinsurance business.
• Reinsurers have benefited from increases in premium ceded by large carriers, notably through large new pro rata cessions where terms have slightly tilted in reinsurers’ favour.

Click here for access to the full report.