NU Online News Service, June 30, 12:00 p.m.

Although reinsurance prices were down for the June 1 renewals, one reinsurance executive recently speculated that price hikes in the insurance loss warranty (ILW) market--fueled by the Deepwater Horizon disaster--could eventually spread to the reinsurance market.

Jeff Consolino, executive vice president and chief financial officer for Bermuda-based Validus Holdings, made his observations about the ILW market during a session of the Oppenheimer CEO Insurance Summit earlier this month.

During the session titled "Reinsurance: How Have Recent Natural Catastrophe and Weather Events Impacted the Prospects for Reinsurance Pricing?"--which is available on an archived webcast (http://investorrelations.validusholdings.com/phoenix.zhtml?c=207971&p=irol-EventDetails&EventId=3131788)--Mr. Consolino agreed with most commentators that it is too early to tell whether liability exposures related to the sinking of the Deepwater Horizon rig are enough to make a dent in, or even turn, the casualty insurance market.

"But what we do see is the ILW market now responding to the event with rates [increasing] 40-, 50- and 60 percent," he said, noting that companies that provide retrocessional protection to property reinsurers in the Gulf of Mexico rely on ILWs to manage their aggregate exposures.

Like property-catastrophe reinsurance, ILWs respond when catastrophic loss events occur, but unlike traditional reinsurance contracts, ILWs are triggered when total industry losses exceed some agreed upon level.

As a result, Mr. Consolino said that "retro pricing should go up and that should work its way all the way down the chain--onto reinsurance pricing and down to the primary pricing as well."

During the session, Mr. Consolino noted that Validus, which has been a fairly major player in the marine and energy market since the company's launch in 2005, announced back in April that it expects its own losses from the Deepwater Horizon event to fall in the $37-to-$45 million range.

The range of loss estimates is net of reinstatement premiums, reinsurance, retrocessional and other recoveries, Validus said.

Referring to analyst and broker reports stating that offshore energy insurance rates are up 15-to-20 percent for rigs operating in shallow water, and 50 percent or more on deep water, Mr. Consolino said "we probably agree with that in the marine and energy sector."

He added, "The longer-term implications for the broader market remain to be seen, and I guess will play out over much longer period."

During the session, Mr. Consolino and three other reinsurance company executives reported that U.S. property reinsurance rates eroded at the June 1 renewals--an important property reinsurance renewal date for Florida-specific insurers and others.

The executives reported 10-to-20 percent rate declines for peak zones, saying that with this year's June 1 prices, U.S. property reinsurers basically gave back rate increases they saw last year at the same renewal date.

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