‘Re/insurers Should Be Proud Of Performance’
Reinsurance leaders shared their views with more than 270 industry professionals at the annual PwC – S&P Global Bermuda Reinsurance conference on November 8, with CEOs saying the island’s reinsurance market “should be proud of its performance.”
Matthew Britten, PwC Bermuda insurance partner, said, “I think what I heard on Tuesday was an increased level of optimism driven by a number of factors including; that despite prolonged tough conditions the market as a whole has remained rational, that reinsurers continue to innovate and search out new opportunities to serve their clients, that investors continue to view the reinsurance asset classes as attractive, and, specifically for the traditional reinsurers, the continued value and importance of rated balance sheets to reinsurance buyers.”
PwC Bermuda Insurance partner Matthew Britten moderates a panel of CFOs at the Bermuda Reinsurance 2016 conference, including Mario Bonaccorso, CFO of PartnerRe, Jeffrey Sangster, CFO of Validus Holdings and Jay S. Bullock, CFO, Argo Group International Holdings:
Arthur Wightman, PwC Bermuda Leader and regional Insurance and Markets Leader, said, “I stated last year that Bermuda is the seedbed of innovation and adaptability and since then this marketplace continues to drive innovation on the world stage.”
Mr Wightman said, “While most reinsurers have embraced change to support incremental innovation, bigger breakthroughs are necessary to compete with the new technologies and business models that are disrupting the industry.
“Technology can radically eliminate waste and enhance underwriting; reinsurance can catalyze the reduction of the protection gap; disintermediation benefits customers and investors alike; strategic cost reduction must trump incremental savings; and diversity will improve returns and is close to being a silver bullet for innovation.”
Speaking during the conference’s CEO Panel, Kevin O’Donnell, President and Chief Executive Officer, RenaissanceRe Holdings Ltd, said, “I do see green shoots of growth both for making the pie bigger and for each of us to be more efficient to attract more risk like cyber to our market.”
“CEOs on the panel said they were pleased with the progress in the rate environment – which may have reached a bottom.
“Looking forward to 2017 – CEOs said it’s going to be a tough year but also one where the reinsurance market is very well poised for success.”
They are proud – I wonder about the people who are still losing their jobs/whose jobs are under threat. The industry is leaking people, it’s just that it is in ones and twos so it never makes the headlines