One Year On

Contributor: Patrick Thiele
Date: 7/1/2010
Almost exactly a year after announcing its acquisition of PARIS RE, PartnerRe approaches the renewals season as a stronger, more secure reinsurance partner.
Tags: Non-specific, CEO commentary

Strengthening Credit Credentials

Contributor: Marcus Pollak, Head of Credit & Surety, PartnerRe
Date: 7/1/2010
Although the recent financial crisis initially hit credit insurance and reinsurance with a vengeance, economic stabilization, enhanced risk awareness and improved terms brought product demand and reinsurance capacity back in line by 2010. Here we look at some central considerations that will help to strengthen the credit re/insurance market, in particular by reducing the likelihood of volatile reinsurance capacity deployment.
Tags: Credit & Surety, Non-specific

Central America - Opportunity and Challenge

Contributor: Salvatore Orlando, Head of P&C Southern Europe & Latin America, PartnerRe; Rick Thomas, Head of Catastrophe Underwriting Zurich, PartnerRe
Date: 4/8/2010
As the direct market regionalizes and retentions increase, risk correlation, solvency regulations and catastrophe losses all pose a threat to the current status quo – we review the issues and beneficial role of reinsurance.
Tags: Non-specific, Property, Catastrophe perils, Pricing & models

Systemic Risk – What Risk?

Contributor: Patrick Thiele, President & CEO PartnerRe
Date: 4/8/2010
Why legislate for systemic risk in an industry that apparently has none? Patrick Thiele calls for intelligent regulation informed by the unique economics of the reinsurance industry.
Tags: Non-specific, Regulation, CEO commentary

A Stochastic Model for Longevity Risk

Contributor: Bridget Browne, Head Life Pricing & Solutions, PartnerRe; Juliette Duchassaing, Life Pricing Actuary, PartnerRe; Fabrice Suter, Life Pricing Actuary, PartnerRe
Date: 2/1/2010
A practical, robust model to assess mortality deviation and thus ensure adequate risk capital in line with solvency requirements
Tags: Life & health, Non-specific, Regulation

New Year – New Market

Contributor: Patrick Thiele President & CEO
Date: 2/1/2010
In a market of “profitable stagnation”, CEO Patrick Thiele looks at what the challenges will be for insurance and reinsurance industries.
Tags: Non-specific, CEO commentary

Happening in Cat

Contributor: Ted Dziurman, Head of Catastrophe, PartnerRe
Date: 10/20/2009
Ted Dziurman, Head of Catastrophe at PartnerRe, gives his views on the 2010 market outlook and introduces PartnerRe’s pioneering new versions of the CatFocusR earthquake and European windstorm models.
Tags: Non-specific, Catastrophe perils, Pricing & models

Preparing for the Unexpected

Contributor: Daniel Dubischar, Group Actuary Life, PartnerRe; Esther Schuetz, Team Leader COE Mortality, PartnerRe
Date: 10/20/2009
Life insurers routinely model the sensitivities of risk factors to the external environment. Extreme events represent an important new dimension that must also be factored-in. We look at some extreme events and ask what the life sector can do to prepare for the unexpected.
Tags: Life & health, Non-specific

The Right Kind of Regulation

Contributor: Patrick Thiele, President & CEO
Date: 10/20/2009
Regulation is coming to the re/insurance industry whether we like it or not. CEO Patrick Thiele gives it a cautious welcome arguing that the right kind of regulation should mean a more secure, more cost-effective form of risk transfer for cedants.
Tags: Non-specific, Regulation

Risk Modeling Lessons of the Financial Crisis

Contributor: Dom Tobey, Deputy Head Global Specialty Lines, PartnerRe
Date: 8/31/2009
When one considers the role that risk modeling played in the roots of the financial crisis, there were very clearly a number of common technical flaws in the models. However, the way the models were used and managed played a far more important role than the technical problems themselves. While these issues centered around investment banking activities, the broad lessons learned are equally applicable to insurance and reinsurance.
Tags: Non-specific, Risk management & reserving, Capital markets & structured products, Claims, Pricing & models

Why an Acquisition Makes Sense

Contributor: Patrick Thiele, President & CEO
Date: 8/31/2009
Insurers and reinsurers today face a more uncertain environment than ever before. Just as volatile capital markets, deep recession and rising inflation are squeezing access to capital, changes in reinsurance buying behavior, lower risk-free rates in government securities, the uncertainty of loss trends and increased regulation, threaten to depress reinsurers’ growth and profitability.
Tags: Non-specific, CEO commentary

Come Rain or Shine

Contributor: Thomas Heintz, Chief Underwriter Agriculture, PartnerRe; Sabine Pistor, Specialty Lines Pricing Actuary, PartnerRe
Date: 12/1/2007
Digging into just one aspect of the field of hail pricing, we present the results of a study into the use of ‘risk coefficients’ – ratios that reflect the relative vulnerabilities of crop types to hail – asking, what are their advantages and, given these, why the inconsistent global application and values?
Tags: Non-specific, Agriculture

When Risk Management Systems Fail

Contributor: Patrick Thiele President & CEO
Date: 12/1/2007
As we progress through the fourth quarter, we continue to hear bad news in the financial sector. The sub-prime debacle and subsequent credit crisis continues to impact the financial and re/insurance sectors. The issue has accelerated in the fourth quarter with ongoing volatility and reductions in liquidity for any kind of sub-prime asset. Stocks directly or indirectly related to the crisis are also dropping. And unfortunately, there is likely more to come.
Tags: Non-specific, Risk management & reserving, Capital markets & structured products, CEO commentary

A New Product Era

Contributor: Brian Tobben, SVP, New Solutions, PartnerRe
Date: 10/1/2007
As the line blurs between the capital and reinsurance markets, a new product era is upon us and reinsurers are becoming increasingly ­flexible in the way that they assume risk for their cedants. Given the similarities between these markets, there are identifiable aspects of risk assumption that will strongly influence how the new products shape up medium term.
Tags: Non-specific, Capital markets & structured products

Sub-prime Parallels

Contributor: Patrick Thiele President & CEO
Date: 10/1/2007
The U.S. and world financial systems are experiencing a ’shock loss’, characterized in the re/insurance industry as a loss event that can lead to substantial financial difficulty. This initially arose out of the sub-prime mortgage asset class, but soon spread to other asset-backed securities. Billions of dollars of investors’ money is disappearing in a wave of defaults and additional billions of dollars worth of securities will be ‘marked to market’. No one currently knows the extent or the magnitude of the problem.
Tags: Non-specific, Risk management & reserving, Capital markets & structured products

When Change is Afoot

Contributor: Patrick Thiele President & CEO
Date: 4/1/2007
The January 1, 2007 non-life renewal results are in. Despite a good portion of premiums leaving the reinsurance market, the renewal was orderly, with a reasonable level of competition. But on January 2, substantial change was afoot. 2006 proved to be a record year ...
Tags: Non-specific, Risk management & reserving, Capital markets & structured products, Regulation, CEO commentary