@Pixabay.
Rarely has the world’s reinsurance community approached the critical 1/1 renewal period with such equanimity. Almost wherever you look there is a feeling of ‘steady as she goes’ with no serious threats to the return to profitability of the last few years.
In 2023, it was the expectation of a hard market that drove the renewals season.
That turnaround from the trough of the soft market years has been hard won and no one wants to let go of it. According to AM Best, the combined ratio of global reinsurers has picked up from the loss-making 110.3% nadir in 2017, returning to a marginal positivity of 96.2% in 2022 before ending 2023 at a healthy 91.5%, producing a return on equity in excess of 20%, something not seen for over a decade. Higher investment returns have also played a major part in the uplift to the bottom line.
