Eric Smith,
President and CEO, Swiss Re Americas

Latin America’s growth and the potential for both our clients and the reinsurance industry is the lead story for 2013, and it will be an interesting one for many decades to come. Mexico, Columbia and Brazil are the three countries we find extremely interesting. You see a lot of big infrastructure projects, which leads to Engineering and Property covers. In all three of those countries [you can see] the emergence of the middle class, and this is driving a lot of opportunity in the insurance space.

The lack of robust economic growth in the U.S. is by far biggest challenge. The economy is not growing at a rate that allows insurers to see the kind of organic growth they would like to have. If the economy doesn’t pick up, then what we saw in 2012 we will see in 2013.

Second challenge: the weather. Right now, we are still in the immediate aftermath of Sandy. Part of what we will see [going forward] is more dialogue about what do we need to do to prepare for the next one. There will be a next one. It is just a question of when and how severe.

Sean McGovern,
Director, North America, General Counsel and Risk Management, Lloyd’s

In terms of growing your business in 2013, the outlook is quite bleak, I’m afraid. The rate environment remains challenging. Although some lines are seeing improvements; it remains spotty. That means it’s going to be all about the quality of your underwriting; there’s not much else to reach for. Extra challenges come in the oversupply of capital in the industry: capacity is at record levels, in spite of the industry absorbing major cats in 2011 and 2012.

We remain focused on our core markets—the U.S., U.K., Canada and Europe—while also looking at faster-growing economies. However, low global economic growth will continue into 2013, fueled by such factors as the Euro crisis and negotiations on the Fiscal Cliff in the U.S. and what impact it may have on the U.S. economy.

Special Reports /

2013 Forecast: Top Trends, Challenges & Opportunities for Carriers & Reinsurers

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