Opinion

As ILS reinsurers recover from the 2017-2018 loss years, the consensus view now is that the market will see a “flight to quality” by investors, bolstering the position of some platforms while eroding the asset base of poorer performers.

Reinsurers are taking modest rate increases largely by “riding on the backs of primary writers”, Chubb CEO Evan Greenberg said recently.

On sweltering weeks like this, you can see why climate change has become a talking point that every ILS manager has to cover in their pitch for new investor mandates.

If 2018 is to be a horrible but ultimately beneficial tonic for the overall market, then it is crucial that all players now decide to go above and beyond recommended standards on transparency.

The retro market has been hard hit in the past couple of years by trapped capital and losses.

In a pleasantly warm Zurich this week, I was discussing one of the city’s traditions – burning the giant figure of a snowman to herald the end of winter and coming spring.

There has been a fair bit of congratulatory talk about the “discipline” of the (re)insurance market in the past month or so.

As the FCA updates the market on its view of the Woodford funds saga, some of the material it is publishing has echoes that may resonate within the ILS market.

Timing is everything and, for the reinsurance market, this is especially true when it comes to losses.

A move towards more bilateral trades is counter to what you’d expect from a commoditised market.

One of my colleagues with an affection for Denis Kessler’s turn of phrase once labelled him the Beyonce of the reinsurance world.

Markel has not actually come out and said what it plans to do with former top 10 ILS manager Markel Catco, but the likely money has to be on a gradual closure now that an overwhelming 91 percent of assets under management are due to be returned to investors, as claims development permits.