Overall pricing down on all geographies and lines

Money, bank, calculator

Higher reinsurance demand has helped offset continued rate drops at the 1 July renewals, according to Guy Carpenter.

The reinsurance broker said that price declines have continued to moderate, predominantly on programs covering US wind.

But it noted that overall pricing was down across all geographies and lines of business.

Guy Carpenter said that additional limit had been placed over the past few months, helping to moderate price declines.

Increased demand for reinsurance and expansion of tailored coverage persisted through the July renewal period from previous seasons.

Guy Carpenter managing director Lara Mowery said: “It was hard to imagine based on the two previous years that we would hear a reinsurer reference lack of capacity as a reason for cutting back on a program, but this did occur at times this June and July.

“There is certainly no capacity shortage overall and reinsurance capital has grown once again. However, the combination of a significant increase in limit purchased and margins that have continued to thin, created a dampening on the market’s response to additional rate pressure, particularly with regard to US wind.”

The Guy Carpenter report said that demand for worldwide property catastrophe coverage has continued to grow and since spring 2014 is up around 8%.

This is mainly due to new firms buying cover and existing buyers using savings to enhance coverage.