Reinsurance industry leaders agreed that competitive pressure is a hallmark of current market conditions, but were eager to emphasise that some markets and products are still attractive amid all the talk of softening, with cedents looking for creativity, responsiveness, and transparency from their reinsurance partners.
At the 68th RVS conference in September, we hosted our fourth executive Monte Carlo Rendezvous roundtable, in partnership with SiriusPoint, BMS Group, and PwC.
On the day, eight experts and leaders from across the re/insurance value chain discussed a range of topics, from market conditions to renewals, the cyber and casualty markets, artificial intelligence and the data centre opportunity, and more.
The full, comprehensive roundtable report will be released in the coming weeks, but in the meantime, below are some comments from representatives of our kind sponsors on reinsurance market conditions.
“I would describe current conditions as competitive, but I personally don’t like talking about the market as a whole because there are many markets and sub markets across most products. There are some markets and products that are attractive, some that are unattractive, some that are marginal,” said David Govrin, Group President and CEO of Global Reinsurance & London Market Specialty, SiriusPoint.
“I think there is increased demand in the market, which is positive. And the increased demand is a result of three things: climate change, geopolitical risk, and technology change. But the industry has generated a lot of capital this year and the last couple of years. Does the demand keep pace with the deployment of capital? No, and that’s fuelling competitive pressure in different areas,” continued Govrin.
Matt Britten, Partner, PwC Bermuda, agreed that it’s difficult to give a broad brush overview of the current environment as there’s so many different markets.
“But obviously, very broadly, there is a softening happening, and to David’s point, there are many reasons why it’s happening. But the predominant one is we are in an excess capital situation, which, therefore, creates a lot of competition,” said Britten. “I think that this poses an interesting challenge now to reinsurers, as to what do reinsurers do in this excess capital situation where we are maybe at a softening point?”
Building on these points, Richard Dudley, CEO UK & International Reinsurance, BMS Group, said that as a risk-bearing entity, your perspective on that market depends on the type of capital you’re using and the distribution chain that you’re using to access the risk in the first place.
“And in many cases, for some of that capital, which is thinking about accepting portfolios of risk as opposed to a balance sheet carrier managing an ongoing portfolio, whether that’s from a broker or an MGA, or a consortium or whatever it might be, some of them view the market quite differently. They don’t necessarily see it as a soft market. They’re viewing the natural diversification as the thing they’re after, rather than the individual rates within the lines of business,” said Dudley.
Stay tuned as we’ll be releasing the full 2026 Reinsurance News Monte Carlo Rendez-Vous Executive Roundtable, sponsored by SiriusPoint, BMS Group, and PwC, in the coming weeks, which will include more commentary from our sponsors and valuable insights from all of the other participants on key industry trends and topics.
For this year’s Monte Carlo Rendezvous Executive Roundtable, we were joined by the following participants:
• David Govrin, Group President and CEO of Global Reinsurance & London Market Specialty, SiriusPoint.
• Richard Dudley, Group Chief Broking Officer and CEO UK & International Reinsurance, BMS Group.
• Matt Britten, Partner, PwC Bermuda.
• Philip Hough, CUO, Peak Re.
• Ditte Deschars, Chair, EMEA, Gallagher Re.
• Christa Schwimmer, Chief Executive, Specialty Reinsurance, Lloyd’s & Bermuda, Munich Re.
• Martin Boreham, Director of Underwriting, Head of Liability & Active Underwriter, Africa Specialty Risks.
• Chris Jarvis, CUO, IGI.
