A debate over whether rating agencies and modeling firms are overreacting to recent catastrophe events took an odd turn recently when experts warned that companies will play games with catastrophe models to maintain current ratings.
During the World Insurance Forum here late last month, the “overreaction” question resurfaced frequently, as executives discussed the lingering impact of Hurricane Katrina and other windstorms.
On the one hand, insurer and reinsurer executives are anticipating increased prices and higher demand for catastrophe reinsurance protection that new versions of cat models will drive later this year. On the other hand, even modeling firm executives are worried about increasing rating agency requirements that hinge on loss estimates generated by updated cat models.
Recommended For You
Want to continue reading?
Become a Free PropertyCasualty360 Digital Reader
Your access to unlimited PropertyCasualty360 content isn’t changing.
Once you are an ALM digital member, you’ll receive:
- Breaking insurance news and analysis, on-site and via our newsletters and custom alerts
- Weekly Insurance Speak podcast featuring exclusive interviews with industry leaders
- Educational webcasts, white papers, and ebooks from industry thought leaders
- Critical converage of the employee benefits and financial advisory markets on our other ALM sites, BenefitsPRO and ThinkAdvisor
Already have an account? Sign In Now
© 2025 ALM Global, LLC, All Rights Reserved. Request academic re-use from www.copyright.com. All other uses, submit a request to [email protected]. For more information visit Asset & Logo Licensing.
