As the autumn conference season concludes and the reinsurance industry shifts its focus to the January renewals, we spoke with MS Reinsurance’s Charlie Goldie, Chief Underwriting Officer, for his insights on the discussions at RVS in Monte Carlo and the Insurance Leadership Forum (ILF) hosted by the Council of Insurance Agents & Brokers (CIAB) in Colorado Springs, along with what’s top of mind for the industry heading into the 1.1 2025 renewals.
Headquartered in Switzerland, MS Reinsurance launched in 2022 as a rebrand of MS Amlin AG, and with offices in Zurich, Bermuda, Miami, and New York, serves clients around the world with non-life treaty reinsurance solutions.
With the reinsurance conference season over until next year and market conditions remaining favourable for sellers, Goldie told Reinsurance News that he left Monte Carlo and CIAB with a strong sense of optimism about the company’s opportunities in the marketplace.
“Clients and brokers are increasingly focused and concerned about elevated risks across the board, whether due to natural catastrophes or man-made perils like strikes, riots, and civil commotion (SRCC) or US casualty,” said Goldie.
“Reinsurance buyers are seeking partners who can help them navigate these complex challenges, often preferring to work with the same reinsurers on multiple fronts. Our approach—working closely with clients and providing quick, clear, solution-oriented feedback—resonates well in this environment,” he added.
For MS Reinsurance, Goldie explained that the best opportunities lie where clients need its capacity the most, with the reinsurer seeing opportunities across “almost every area” amid heightened concerns around natural catastrophes and man-made perils.
In terms of the current state of the market and conditions in relevant regions, Goldie offered some insight into specific areas the company is monitoring.
“The market is reasonably priced, though still competitive in its own way. Most reinsurers are cautiously optimistic about profitability projections for 2024 and 2025, with an emphasis on ‘cautiously.’ There remains considerable concern about the persistent stream of catastrophe losses, as well as questions about the adequacy of US casualty pricing.
“With this in mind, reinsurers are unlikely to show much appetite for price competition, but we do expect competition for share allocations in each placement. While buyers and brokers may not love the risk pricing at 1 January 2025, we believe they will have choices once the market-clearing price is set,” said Goldie.
The January 1st, 2025, reinsurance renewal season is fast-approaching, and given the European focus of the 1.1 renewal, we questioned Goldie on what he’s seeing on negotiations ahead of the renewals, in particular the reactions of cedants to rates and capacity constraints.
“Reinsurance buyers have been navigating a changed market since 1 January 2023. With the worst of the capacity crunch seemingly behind us, we anticipate that many will take a close look at how they structure their reinsurance panels.
“This involves weighing the value of longer-term, broader partners versus transactional players, and finding the right balance. Specifically, we believe cedants will be reflecting on how individual reinsurers have supported—or challenged—them during tough times and will make choices accordingly for the future,” said Goldie.
Of course, 2024 is already another year in which insured losses from natural catastrophe events has exceeded $100 billion, driven by hurricanes in the US and severe convective storms, but also severe flooding in parts of Europe and other parts of the world, such as Dubai, contributed this year.
In light of this, we asked Goldie about MS Reinsurance’s approach, given recent events have raised questions about strategies.
“We are very comfortable with our approach,” said Goldie. “Our strategy focuses on building a highly diversified portfolio, which has served us well. While we will inevitably encounter some headline loss events, the other segments of our portfolio have played a crucial supporting role, steadying our financial results.”
To conclude, Goldie offered some further reflections on what hurricanes Helene and Milton, which hit Florida as major storms just two weeks apart, may signal for the industry.
“Hurricanes Helene and Milton serve as reminders that the risks in our business, despite being extensively studied, are not always fully understood and can be massive. In Helene, we saw once again the incredible power and the devastating impacts of water and flooding.
“The human and economic losses from that event are significant, and insurance losses are likely still under-estimated. Regarding Milton, while we’ve seen headlines about the ‘industry breathing a sigh of relief,’ it’s important to recognize that Milton could very well rank among one of the 10 to 15 costliest events in the industry’s history—pending confirmation from the latest estimates,” he said.
