A.M. BestTV at London Market Briefing: After a Succession of Catastrophes, a Pause Before Impact
November 22 2017 - 04:00AM
Business Wire
In this A.M.BestTV episode, speakers at A.M. Best's 2017
Insurance Market Briefing - Europe & Methodology Review Seminar
in London outline a range of opinions on pricing following the
spate of 2017 catastrophes. Click on
http://www.ambest.com/v.asp?v=imbe1117 to view the entire
program.
Topics also discussed at the briefing include the issue of
protectionism, merger and acquisition activity, A.M. Best’s Credit
Ratings outlook and the recent adoption of A.M. Best’s updated
global methodology.
“It's an opportunity for A.M. Best to review the last 12 months
and give some thoughts toward the next 12 months,” said Nick
Charteris-Black, A.M. Best managing director of market development,
EMEA. “It is also an opportunity for A.M. Best to showcase the
market research that we’ve worked on throughout the past year.”
Insurance executives participating in the market briefing said
they expect the losses generated by hurricanes Harvey, Irma and
Maria and other catastrophes to lift rates across the industry.
“January 1 is a major date for reinsurance renewals and those
negotiations are ongoing at the moment. It is not yet clear how
much prices will rise, but clearly that prices will rise for
loss-affected contracts,” said James Few, global managing director
of reinsurance at MS Amlin.
However, A.M. Best Chief Rating Officer Stefan Holzberger, who
took part in a panel exploring the reinsurance industry, said the
catastrophes may not turn the market away from the current soft
conditions.
“This probably won’t be a long-term catalyst to improve the
pricing environment and because of that it may not be that kind of
beginning point for hard-market conditions, which frankly would be
a good thing for the industry,” said Holzberger. “We’re just not
sure we’re going to see that in 2018 and beyond.”
Other people that appear in this episode:
- Jon Hancock, performance management
director, Lloyd’s;
- Mike Van Slooten, international head of
market analysis, Aon Benfield; and
- Mark Geoghegan, managing director,
Insurance Insider.
Visit http://www.ambest.tv/imbe17 for full coverage of the
event, with exclusive interviews with key executives at the
briefing.
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A.M. BestLee McDonald, +1 908-439-2200, ext.
5561Group Vice President, Publication and News
Serviceslee.mcdonald@ambest.com