New York:
According to Guy Carpenter & Company, capital dedicated to reinsurance continued to grow in 2017 despite catastrophe losses.Due to ongoing excess supply and overall market resilience at January 1, rate firming was generally moderate and pricing shifts focused on client-specific justification.
Guy Carpenter’s estimate of dedicated reinsurance capital, completed in conjunction with A.M. Best Company at year-end 2017, is approximately USD 427 billion, up 2 percent from year-end 2016. While traditional capital is flat, convergence capital grew 9 percent to USD 82 billion including replacement of lost or trapped capital. Guy Carpenter and A.M. Best’s estimate of traditional capital is calculated using A.M. Best’s proprietary capital model (BCAR) results as well as line of business allocations.
Last fall’s concentrated period of events, including four land-falling hurricanes of which three were Category 4 or greater, helped make 2017 the third year on record with insured catastrophe losses over USD 100 billion, according to Guy Carpenter. The company’s current estimate of USD 113.5 billion in insured loss excludes the NFIP, which does not significantly impact industry capital or profitability. The estimate also accounts for recent decreases in some estimated losses.
“Despite substantial catastrophe losses in 2017, the market demonstrated significant resilience with no notable capital withdrawal and moderate price increases. Evolving market dynamics and innovative reinsurance solutions serve to mitigate significant loss events and protect industry capital and profitability,” said David Priebe, Vice Chairman, Guy Carpenter. “The reinsurance and capital markets responded favorability to those companies who were able to present quality data and well developed and executed loss mitigation strategies. These measures support companies’ ability to attain customized risk transfer solutions and maximum protection for their risk profiles.”
The analysis also reviews reinsurer profitability, noting reinsurers have leveraged retrocession coverage more aggressively in recent years, supported by the use of convergence capital. This helped avoid a negative return on average equity (ROAE) for the Guy Carpenter Global Reinsurance Composite, a representative sampling of carriers in the sector, as of the third quarter.
Despite the erosion of profits from the first half of the year by third quarter losses, the 10-year weighted average ROAE is 8.1 percent – a figure including two of the three costliest catastrophe years on record. While reinsurers exercised greater caution in deploying capital at January 1, there was no indication markets’ support of the sector was diminished.