Aon Benfield has today launched its annual Life Catastrophe Benchmarking Study 2013 of global life insurers to provide insight into catastrophe reinsurance purchasing patterns and help benchmark retentions, quantity and price.
The survey is based on the responses of 290 life insurers from 17 countries or groups of countries, which buy a combined catastrophe reinsurance capacity of EUR7.5 billion in terms of XL per-event treaties. The geographical scope of the study is focused on Europe but also includes Canada, China, Israel and Japan.
Key findings include:
• More companies are buying life catastrophe protection, increasing from 78% in 2011 to 83% in 2013.
• The capacity purchased in Europe for XL per-event has constantly grown since 2010, rising by 17% between 2010 and 2013, reaching EUR6.6 billion in 2013.
• The earthquake and tsunami that occurred in March 2011 have impacted the Japanese market with a 10% increase in Rate on Line (ROL) – the percentage of premium paid for the unit of cover.
• The largest purchasers of capacity per event in terms of number of lives covered are Turkey and Israel, mainly due to their exposure to earthquake and terrorism.
• Apart from the increase in Japan and a 13% decrease in Finland, the global ROLs have remained stable since 2010 in the studied countries.
Anne-Lise Bagur, actuary at Aon Benfield Analytics, said: “Our study shows that the current capacity in XL per-event cover equates to at EUR 6.6 billion in Europe – an increase of 17% since we started the study four years ago. This figure also reflects how the number of companies not taking out reinsurance has decreased from 22% in 2011 to 17% in 2013. We believe Solvency II is the main driver of the increase in reinsurance purchase in Europe, as companies prepare for the forthcoming regulation by buying reinsurance to reduce capital requirements.”
The survey enables actuaries to verify pricing calculations for alternative reinsurance pricing structures, and gives intermediaries the data to place and negotiate the most effective and fair reinsurance terms and conditions.
This is part of Aon Benfield’s global breath of capabilities for Life insurers, including catastrophe models from Impact Forecasting, ReMetrica – its dynamic financial analysis tool for life and broking expertise.
Download the report: bit.ly/1ajLzMw
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