News


Cedants deserve unique assessments


J


ust one year since it first established a presence in Continental Europe, Amlin Re


Europe is celebrating a successful first year in the region. It has written €110 million of written premium across 150 different clients in the first 12 months and is now looking to further establish its presence. So says Philippe Regazzoni, chief execu-


tive officer at Amlin Re Europe, who says he is pleased with the reinsurer’s progress. Entering an increasingly crowded market in Zurich, the company sought to differentiate itself by ensur- ing all its core functions and capabilities were also available in the Swiss office. “We are not a copy of our Bermuda parent;


rather we are a true European player,” Regaz- zoni says. “We have European people, Euro- pean capital and a European proposition – all to access European business that doesn’t often make it to Lloyd’s or Bermuda.” He says Amlin Re Europe’s underwrit-


ing approach means risks are underwritten by country rather than by line of business. “The advantage of this approach is evident in the success we have achieved over the past 12 months. The market has responded well to an approach where we have people in the local markets speaking their language and dealing with them in a consistent, localised manner.” Turning to rates, Regazzoni is philosophi-


25.10.11 TUESDAY


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cal. “Rates will do what rates will do,” he says. “It all boils down to supply and demand. If there is too much supply, there won’t be much pressure but if supply is reduced – and there is a good likelihood of this – then there may yet be some pressure on rates. “It is impossible to generalise because every


contract has its own dynamic. We take every client on their own merits – we don’t simply throw them all in one basket. Each client needs to be assessed individually. If rates deserve to go up, we will reflect that in our price. If they deserve to be stable, then that again will be re- flected. Our aim is to be consistent.”


Event of Biblical proportions needed for turn M


arket conditions suggest rates will continue to drift with little impetus for


increases outside lines and regions directly affected by losses this year. That is the view of Chris Klein, head of sales (UK/EMEA) and market relationships at Guy Carpenter. “Clearly where people have suffered losses,


the terms of renewal will respond accordingly – no one would expect anything different. But reinsurers have the choice not to write poorly priced business – there is always the option to return it to shareholders through dividends and share buy-backs,” he says. “As it is, the market has been unable to put down an anchor. Unless something of Biblical


proportions occurs, a wider hardening is un- likely. Instead, the market is likely to experience only localised hardening. It really is impossible to talk these days about a general turn. “The last and only time that a general hard-


ening occurred was after September 11 when you had cat losses, clash and correlation. Oth- erwise, even events like Hurricane Andrew and the workers’ comp crisis in the 1980s prompted only a short spike of a year, but nothing more.” Klein adds that reinsurers should also put


their immediate concerns about pricing in con- text. “The intensification of the economic crisis and political crisis in Europe is focusing a lot of minds. A lot of discussions are going on around


2 | INTELLIGENT INSURER —BADEN-BADEN TODAY | Tuesday October 25 2011 Chris Klein, Guy Carpenter


pricing but, actually, there is a much bigger cri- sis going, which could have a significant impact on markets.”


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