Speaking in an interview during the 68th edition of the Rendez-Vous de Septembre (RVS) in Monte Carlo, David Govrin, SiriusPoint’s Group President and CEO of Global Reinsurance & London Market Specialty, discussed the outlook for the January 1 reinsurance renewals, including rate movements, terms and conditions, and underwriting discipline.
The executive also shared his views on the growing use of artificial intelligence across the industry, highlighting both its potential applications and the challenges of using the technology in underwriting and decision-making.
On property reinsurance, the executive said he expects competitive pressure to continue as the market enters the January renewals.
He added, “Property has been profitable for primary insurers and reinsurers over the last couple of years. There is no doubt that rates have been coming down this year, in part due to a lack of nat cats, and this will create competitive pressure.”
“Now, how that comes through will be important. It may not all come through as pure rate; it may come through as terms and conditions. But there’ll be pressure on both pure rate and product.”
Govrin also discussed how reinsurers are balancing underwriting discipline with clients’ changing coverage needs, noting, “I think reinsurers will always talk about discipline, so maintaining that largely holds.”
The executive continued, “This year you’ve seen more flexibility around terms and conditions, market drop-down covers, aggregate features, some expansion of coverage terms, and I think those discussions will continue.
“Reinsurers have to be responsive to clients.
“It’s really just a question of price and getting paid for the risk. If the risk is changing through changes in coverage, the question is: Are you getting paid adequately?
“So I think reinsurers are always open to having a conversation around what the client wants, the price for the risk, and is there a clearing price or not.”
The conversation later turned to artificial intelligence, a topic increasingly discussed by leaders across the insurance and reinsurance industry, as well as by brokers.
Govrin highlighted the areas where he believes AI is already delivering value, while noting the challenges around its use in underwriting and decision-making.
“Everyone’s going to talk about AI differently and embrace it differently. I think the industry is seeing a lot of benefit in specific use cases around data mining, data cleansing, data analytics, operational flows, process flows, all those types of things.
“For us, AI is a tool, and it’s a tool that enables things like processing, operations, data access, and cleansing, etc. You’ll have different views in the industry on whether you can use AI at its current stage to make decisions versus informing decisions, but I think it would be hard to argue that more access to data does not help decision-making.”
The interview comes as SiriusPoint continues to develop a broader and more balanced business.
In its second-quarter 2026 results, the specialty insurer and reinsurer generated net income available to common shareholders of $69 million, up approximately 16% year over year, while gross written premiums increased 5.5% to $981.5 million.
