Reinsurance

Risk modeler Eqecat will add to the hurricane model debate when it releases an update to its North Atlantic Hurricane Model on July 15.

Bermuda's Hiscox and Montpelier Re, as well as Luxembourg's Flagstone Re, say second quarter severe weather in the U.S. cost them each tens of millions of dollars. Hiscox's estimate of losses from the Japan earthquake is now at the high end of its range.

The soft market remains firmly entrenched on the casualty side of the reinsurance business. But the property and catastrophe marketplace is a much different—and more unsettled—story.

In mid-June Allied World Assurance Co. Holdings AG and Transatlantic Holdings Inc. announced a $3.2 billion merger deal, creating a global specialty insurer and reinsurer operating in 18 countries and on six continents.

For U.S. coastal property business, "the market's capital has felt 'three Katrinas,'" according to experts at a reinsurance broker, which previously speculated it would take three Katrina-sized events to push up reinsurance prices.

Consumers are being told that SB 408 will suddenly allow for large homeowners premium rate hikes because of reinsurance costs. We need to tell them the real story, starting with why reinsurance is important to everyone.