Brokers fear being squeezed out of the loop
Anxious cedants are exploring private deals, says chairman of the VIG Re board of directors.
“I have never seen brokers so nervous. The tide has been turning for some time and it is increasingly difficult for them to talk a good story on price, especially on property. They are concerned they will not get deals done—and they will end up with holes in their clients’ coverage.”
Those are the words of Johannes Martin Hartmann, chairman of the board of directors, VIG Re. He said that brokers fear that, if deals do not get placed, they risk their clients offering rival brokers an opportunity—or even doing private deals directly with reinsurers themselves.
Either way, brokers fear losing business and being left out.
“They are still able to advise on things like transparency and they will look to differentiate their clients, but their fear is getting squeezed out,” Hartmann said.
“As a result, they are not pushing too much; they are trying to manage clients’ expectations. They are advising them: ‘don’t try and buy too much, be flexible, give in a little on price’. It is because they don’t want to look incompetent, and risk being replaced.”
A sneak preview: more exclusive content and interviews inside
A sneak preview: more exclusive content and interviews inside
Peak Re eyes growth in Europe, but it is no pushover
European cedants have earned no free passes for Peak Re’s diversification drive: they will face the full swathe of hoops to jump through.
Just because a global reinsurer looks underweight in Europe and is seeking growth and diversification via the region, doesn’t mean it will give ground to European cedants keen to cling on to low retentions, historic structures and more palatable pricing than they are being offered elsewhere.
That is the message from Piotr Nowakowski, chief underwriting officer at Peak Re since August after having joined the company in January 2022 as director, head of product underwriting for the company’s property and casualty business.
Nowakowski, who has completed more than decade-long tenures at Echo Re and SCOR, told Baden-Baden Today he couldn’t help but like the “amazing growth story” put together by Franz Hahn’s Peak Re. He admits to “liking a new challenge” and sees opportunity in a firm that has enjoyed robust growth over the past 10 years. “It doesn’t happen very often.”
