Reinsurers see property lines portfolios increase, casualty lines decrease

Reinsurers are shuffling the mix of their property and casualty lines in an environment of declining catastrophes and deteriorating rates, according to A.M. Best.
As our casualty lines have shrunk, property has become a larger part of the portfolio than in years past, Andy Barnard, CEO of Odyssey Re Holdings, told A.M. Best. Given the negative attractiveness of catastrophe-exposed property pricing, our shifting mix should help sustain a healthy combined ratio in the face of deteriorating casualty expectations.
A.M. BestWire reported reinsurance results in 2007 Q3 benefited from the benign catastrophe activity in the United States, but were adversely impacted by a series of less-severe events in Europe and South America. These events include the U.K. floods and the earthquake in Peru.
Dinos Iordanou, president and CEO of Arch Capital, said this anticipated change in business mix away from casualty lines took longer than initially thought. He said it was mainly because the cat events of ’04 and ’05 helped maintain favorable reinsurance market conditions, which we took advantage of.
Joe Taranto, CEO of Everest Re, said the volumes written in both property and casualty lines have reversed themselves over the past two years. If you went back a year or two ago, we probably, on a worldwide basis, would have been 55% casualty and 45% property, Taranto told A.M. Best. And if you took a look at us in 2007, it’s probably flipped around where we are 55% property and 45% casualty.