A.M. BestTV at London Market Briefing: After a Succession of Catastrophes, a Pause Before Impact

Business Wire

OLDWICK, N.J.--(BUSINESS WIRE)-- In this ^A.M.BestTV episode, speakers at A.M. Best's 2017 Insurance Market Briefing - Europe & Methodology Review Seminar in London outline a range of opinions on pricing following the spate of 2017 catastrophes. Click on http://www.ambest.com/v.asp?v=imbe1117 to view the entire program.

Topics also discussed at the briefing include the issue of protectionism, merger and acquisition activity, A.M. Best’s Credit Ratings outlook and the recent adoption of A.M. Best’s updated global methodology.

“It's an opportunity for A.M. Best to review the last 12 months and give some thoughts toward the next 12 months,” said Nick Charteris-Black, A.M. Best managing director of market development, EMEA. “It is also an opportunity for A.M. Best to showcase the market research that we’ve worked on throughout the past year.”

Insurance executives participating in the market briefing said they expect the losses generated by hurricanes Harvey, Irma and Maria and other catastrophes to lift rates across the industry.

“January 1 is a major date for reinsurance renewals and those negotiations are ongoing at the moment. It is not yet clear how much prices will rise, but clearly that prices will rise for loss-affected contracts,” said James Few, global managing director of reinsurance at MS Amlin.

However, A.M. Best Chief Rating Officer Stefan Holzberger, who took part in a panel exploring the reinsurance industry, said the catastrophes may not turn the market away from the current soft conditions.

“This probably won’t be a long-term catalyst to improve the pricing environment and because of that it may not be that kind of beginning point for hard-market conditions, which frankly would be a good thing for the industry,” said Holzberger. “We’re just not sure we’re going to see that in 2018 and beyond.”

Other people that appear in this episode:

Jon Hancock, performance management director, Lloyd’s;
Mike Van Slooten, international head of market analysis, Aon Benfield; and
Mark Geoghegan, managing director, Insurance Insider.

Visit http://www.ambest.tv/imbe17 for full coverage of the event, with exclusive interviews with key executives at the briefing.

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^A.M.BestTV covers exclusive A.M. Best information and reports, targeted topics and key developments in the (re)insurance industry every Monday, Wednesday and Friday. Sign up for alerts of episodes at http://www.ambest.com/multimedia/ambtvsignup.html. View ^A.M.BestTV episodes at http://www.ambest.tv.

A.M. Best is the world’s oldest and most authoritative insurance rating and information source. For more information, visit www.ambest.com.