Industry IQ: April 1 renewals increase up to 14%

U.S. property-casualty reinsurance rates for April 1 renewals had increases as much as 14 percent for national programs on a risk-adjusted basis, according to the recently released Guy Carpenter Global Reinsurance Composite. Reinsurers’ capital has been crimped by investment losses, and the latest increases extend a trend that began at the beginning of the year, with current pricing trends being influenced by the reduced capacity. The report projected that capital likely will continue to be constrained this year. Some reinsurers already have used their allocated capacity for transactions other than renewals and in certain cases are having to reduce renewal lines as well. Using the 20 firms tracked in the as a proxy for capital availability, Guy Carpenter found that shareholders’ funds dropped 18 percent last year–reflecting a loss of $19.7 billion. Report findings include: o National programs in the Northeast increased 6 to 8 percent on a risk-adjusted basis o Risk-adjusted pricing rose 12 to 14 percent for residual markets o Firm-order terms (FOTs) prices were up 14 to 16 percent year-over-year for higher layers, and 10 to 14 percent for lower layers o Lower-layer Northeast FOTs increased 4 to 6 percent, and higher layers in the same region say increases of 8 to 10 percent o For the national U.S. market as a whole, FOTs ended up at 94.8 percent of average quotes, about equal to the same ratio calculated at the Jan. 1 renewal