A.M. BestTV at MORO: Mutuals on Reinsurance Rates: What Can’t Be Sustained, Won’t Be, Says Expert Panel

Business Wire

OLDWICK, N.J.--(BUSINESS WIRE)-- In this ^A.M.BestTV episode at the Meeting of Reinsurance Officials (MORO) conference in Montreal, a panel of insurers, reinsurers and brokers said 2017's catastrophes brought temporary uncertainty to the market, but there's been little slowdown in reinsurers' pricing wars. Click on http://www.ambest.com/v.asp?v=moro1418 to view the entire program.

A conference-related survey found that a consensus believes the reinsurance market is unsustainable, while 62% of attendees said that they would rather be a buyer of reinsurance than a provider.

“When I first saw that figure, I was surprised since I definitely did not feel that way during the last renewal season, based on the worldwide catastrophes of 2017,” said Apundeep Lamba, vice president, corporate actuarial & reinsurance services, The Co-operators. “However, as the uncertainty reduced, it became apparent that the capacity was just as available as it had been prior to 2017. Consequently, the events of 2017 did not really reduce the overall capacity.”

Andreas Beckmann, chief underwriting officer and director, R+V Versicherung AG, believes that pricing should be higher than what it is presently. However, with the present state of the market, he said he realizes that, “As reinsurers, our job is to find solutions that will enable us to put a portfolio together … so that at the end of the day, we have something that will give us a little bit of a profit.”

Other people that appear in this episode:

Gregg Lockhart, director, reinsurance operations, Shelter Mutual Insurance Company; and
Anthony Phillips, chairman, Latin America and the Caribbean, Willis Re.

For full video coverage of MORO, including exclusive executive interviews, visit http://www.ambest.tv/moro18.

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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.