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Editor's Note
Leader: We salute you
“We probably empower our underwriters more than some of our peers do,” says Ulrich Wallin. The flip side, however, is that he pays them less than his peers do too.
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Editor's Note
Values we should learn from
In the wake of the financial crisis, the insurance industry has tried to distance itself from the investment banking industry, where the trouble began. And this has meant a return to core values.When it comes to the image of capitalism in general, there is no more prominent champion of core ...
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Editor's NoteReflections on the Rendez-Vous
The outlook among delegates who attended the 2009 Reinsurance Rendez-Vous in Monte Carlo was as sunny as the glorious weather there. The mood is stable, even optimistic. Reinsurers have recovered much of the capital they lost in the financial crisis, and the first half of the hurricane season has been ...
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Editor's NoteThe crash one year on
This time last year the financial world was tumbling around our ears, as Lehman Brothers and AIG became high profile casualties of the credit crisis. But one year on, the world as we know it has not vanished. Rumours of the death of capitalism appear to have been exaggerated. It ...
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Editor's NoteImpressions of Gibraltar
The close attention that Peter Caruana, Gibraltar’s Chief Minster, pays to the details of his country’s affairs is shown by the number of green folders on his desk. In fact, they cover several surrounding desks and tops of cabinets too. He is a man of lawyerly manner and old-fashioned politeness, ...
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Editor's NoteFudge in Brussels
Agreement on Solvency II, the most important piece of legislation affecting European insurers and reinsurers, has finally been reached. But at the cost of a political fudge that leaves out one of the most important parts of the new regime: group support. This crucial component of the original directive had ...
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Editor's NoteG20 plays the blame game
In April the leaders of the G20, the world’s most powerful nations, held a summit in London with the avowed aim of addressing the world economic crisis. One of their main pledges was “to take action against non-cooperative jurisdictions, including tax havens”. The G20 leaders threatened to hit tax havens ...
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Editor's NoteQatar: wish you were here
It was a great pleasure to visit Qatar in mid March, on the occasion of the MultaQa Qatar conference. Over recent months I have grown too accustomed to a London over which the grey hand of recession hangs like fog. Many friends in financial services have recently lost their jobs, ...
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Editor's Note
Don’t run down run-off
Run-off is not something some people wish to think about. It has the whiff of failure about it. Yet to succeed in the recession, a realistic and tough-minded approach is required.Not panic, but clear and careful thinking.Firstly, and most obviously, the recession argues this. Investment losses are profound.Claims will increase. ...
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Editor's Note
Don’t blame offshore
A new wave of regulations is one of the likely consequences of the financial crisis, and the microscope will be focussed on offshore financial centres. During his election campaign, President Obama criticised “corporations that hide their profits offshore”, pointing to Bermuda. Angela Merkel, the German Chancellor, also has offshore in ...
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Editor's Note
Coming soon: the hard market
The reinsurance market appears close to a turning point. Rates typically rise following a major disaster, such as an especially bad series of hurricanes or the terrorist attacks of 9/11. The last market turn was in 2005, when Katrina and other hurricanes caused massive losses. Today, severe losses caused by ...
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Editor's Note
Race against time
The financial world is bracing itself for recession. J.P. Morgan for example expects a contraction this quarter of 4% (on an annualised basis) in the US, 3% in the UK, and 2% in the eurozone. For 2009, it predicts 0.4% global growth, but advanced countries shrinking 0.5% and emerging regions ...
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Editor's Note
Back from Monte Carlo
We find ourselves at a unique moment in financial history.The credit crisis has claimed not only another Wall Street investment bank (Lehman, after Bear Stearns fell last March) but also now AIG, one of the world’s greatest insurance companies.The $85bn loan the U.S. government granted on 16 September to save ...
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Editor's Note
Storm chasers
It’s that time of year again. On 1 June the North Atlantic hurricane season officially started. As a result, we’ve turned into an industry of storm chasers once again. We may not physically chase storms like the half-crazed enthusiasts racing around in their trucks in Tornado Alley, but we will ...
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Editor's Note
Exorcising the ghost
Our bold headline this month “Raising the Titanic” (page 10 onwards) is about the renewed efforts to establish a New York Insurance Exchange, 20 years after the previous attempt failed dramatically. Efforts to establish a “Lloyd’s” in New York in the 1980s came a cropper. The market was seen as ...
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Editor's Note
How the mighty fall
"The moral crusader and ambitious politician has fallen from his lofty pedestal and a lot of people hope it hurts" - Helen Yates, Editor - Global Reinsurance.
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Editor's Note
Desert stampede
The fallout of subprime will be felt more keenly in today's global village than ever before
