Insurance Rate News

Willis Towers Watson's corporate risk and broking segment posted organic growth of 4 percent in the third quarter, and said it expected rate rises on US catastrophe-exposed property accounts after a succession of major losses

Senior insurance executives and underwriters in Baden-Baden were expecting a North Atlantic-hurricane-induced rate increase to spread even into unaffected specialty lines, after years of margin compression in sectors including marine, energy and aviation.

Losses sustained by Caribbean insurer Nagico during hurricanes Irma and Maria have not dented the allure of the business for 50 percent owner Peak Re.

The third quarter could still go down as the costliest in the (re)insurance industry's history, with almost all the companies to report so far dragged to a loss and a significant portion of the sector's excess capital wiped out.

The battle lines are being drawn in Asia between reinsurers and cedants ahead of the 1 January renewals, as the sector continues to come to terms with the remarkable string of third quarter cat losses.

Chubb CEO Evan Greenberg has criticised "protectionist" lobbying by US insurers, saying they are acting to the detriment of consumers

The London market is driving a push for higher property rates, which is good timing for Axis after closing its purchase of Novae, according to the Bermudian's president and CEO Albert Benchimol

XL Group is already seeing double-digit rate rises for short-tail lines, with loss-affected accounts showing higher increases, according to Greg Hendrick, president of property and casualty insurance and reinsurance.

Reinsurance buyers at Baden-Baden have conceded that they will not be able to achieve European property cat rate reductions at 1 January

While most industry participants agree that a significant portion of insurance-linked securities (ILS) capital supporting retro and collateralised reinsurance will reload at 1.1, the extent of the "re-up" and the return it will require continues to be debated.

Brokers and reinsurers fought for position at the PCI annual meeting in Chicago last week ahead of a 1 January renewal that looks increasingly difficult to call.

Cat bond market prices had been written down by 5.3 percent by mid-October after hurricanes Harvey, Irma and Maria, as multiple insurance-linked securities (ILS) transactions were expected to respond to the disasters