It appears that surveyed reinsurers have finally reached the technology tipping point. Digitization is now seen as key to the change that must unfold. It is believed that those who quickly move to create solutions that are grounded in modern technology, taking into account how insurance is bought, sold and managed, will be the most likely winners.
The medieval nursery rhyme, ring a ring o’ roses, depicting the ravages of the black plague, could well represent a metaphor for the property and casualty insurance industry’s past erratic pricing behaviour. Now, with a record level of excess capital awash in the global marketplace, has the historical pricing cycle been broken forevermore?
Some reinsurers use the catastrophe models of third-party vendors; others have opted to develop their own internal models to estimate losses. But despite significant improvements in data collection and computing power, there will always be some level of uncertainty in Cat models, especially those attempting to predict losses from human-induced disasters like cyber attacks or nuclear terrorism.
Flood losses in the wake of storms Elvira and Friederike in late May and early June are not expected to result in ratings actions, but it is anticipated they will hit first-half results for French and German insurers, notes a…
Economical Insurance estimates its pre-tax losses related to the Fort McMurray wildfire will be $35 million to $45 million, net of reinsurance recoveries and reinstatement premiums. Economical Insurance said in a statement on Wednesday that its catastrophe reinsurance coverage commences…
Hannover Re’s sharply improved underwriting results in property and casualty reinsurance for 2016 Q1 – coupled with the elimination of a positive special effect in 2015 Q1 – helped the world’s third largest reinsurer post a 12.7% hike in Group…
Despite a low natural catastrophe-loss environment that helped SCOR’s Global Property and Casualty segment record strong technical profitability and a solid contribution from the Life segment for gross written premiums, the company’s net income fell slightly to 170 million euros…
Net income available to common shareholders of Everest Re Group Ltd. was US$171.7 million in the first quarter of 2016 compared to US$323.0 million in the same quarter of 2015, the company reported Monday. The after-tax operating income available to…
Allied World Assurance Company Holdings AG reported Tuesday its combined ratio deteriorated 7.9 points, from 88.1% during the first quarter of 2015 to 96% in the three months ending March 31, while net premiums written dropped 8.9%. Zug, Switzerland-based Allied…
Overall investor demand remains high in the insurance-linked securities market, with US$2.215 billion in new issuance of catastrophe bonds – one of which covers Canadian earthquake risk – in the first three months of 2016, Aon plc reported Wednesday. Chicago-based…
Risk Management Solutions, Inc. (RMS) announced on Thursday that it has released the “first ever” app to model ‘cat-in-a-box’ deals. The cloud-based app extends the ability to independently assess and underwrite parametric contracts from a small group of cedant, brokers…
“Canada is in a better position than many other countries to actually close its protection gap,” Veronica Scotti, president and CEO of Swiss Re Canada, said Wednesday during Swiss Re’s Canadian Insurance Outlook in downtown Toronto. “Sometimes it takes an…