SURVEY
Glad to be back in Baden-Baden
Attendees to Baden-Baden’s annual reinsurance meeting seem happy to be back—but there is much to discuss ahead of a challenging renewal, say respondents to an Intelligent Insurer survey.
Attendees to this year’s reinsurance meeting in Baden-Baden, the first in-person event for three years, are keen to reconnect after several years of operating virtually, it seems, judging by the results of a survey sent out in advance of the event by this publication.
Almost 90 percent of respondents indicated they are keen to connect with new people and seek new clients, while almost 80 percent said they wanted to reaffirm relationships with existing clients. Some of the other reasons for attending included negotiations for the year-end renewal and learning more about industry trends.
“It’s good to be back,” said one respondent. “There is nothing quite like an autumnal Baden-Baden, walking between hotels and meetings, negotiating and reaffirming friendships with old friends. I have missed the restaurants, but my peers and clients more. It will be a special meeting.”
“Capacity has again retreated and new investors are nowhere in sight.”
It seems that the talking points in those meetings could be varied. Inflation and capacity top the list of talking points, which is perhaps no surprise. But it is clear that recent losses from Hurricane Ian will be top of mind as well, and perhaps because of this, terms and conditions and some of the challenges of growth the industry faces.
“The industry was already facing a capacity crunch; Hurricane Ian has just made things much worse,” said one respondent. “We are now looking at a much tougher negotiation as a result. Capacity has again retreated and new investors are nowhere in sight.
“Cedants will be leaning into their long-term relationships, but they will still be paying more with much higher deductibles.”
“It is a shame that some of the soft issues are now off the agenda.”
Softer issues
Some delegates indicated they expected to be discussing softer issues such as environmental, social and corporate governance (ESG) factors and technology advances within the industry. During the long soft market, such topics were much more pertinent, and some bemoaned the fact that the pressing challenges of pricing and capacity are now distracting the industry from long-term goals.
“It is a shame that some of the soft issues are now off the agenda,” one said. “ESG is important and an opportunity for the industry to make a difference. No one wants to talk about that now.
“The agenda is far more urgent around filling programmes regardless of some of some of these softer, but critical, issues.”
Another added: “Insurtech has the potential to make a profound difference to the industry. I just hope some of the advances are not simply put on the back burner now that reinsurers are again making healthy profits from their core business.”
Main image: Shutterstock / Roman Babakin
