The reinsurer said that there was a ‘movement towards stabilisation generally’ at its RVS 2024 briefing in Monte Carlo.

The development of hardening in reinsurance terms and conditions across the industry has been noted as “a continuing trend” in 2024.

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That was according to Hannover Re executive board chairman Jean-Jacques Henchoz, who spoke at the firm’s Monte Carlo briefing this morning (9 September 2024) for this year’s Rendez-Vous de Septembre (RVS 2024).

He explained: “We all know that [the market] saw a hardening in the terms and conditions of reinsurance a couple of years ago, and we’ve seen a continuing trend towards this hardening in 2024.

“But, we’ve also seen a movement towards a certain stabilisation generally. With differences across segments and geographies, we’ve come to a point in time where we feel that the risk adequacies are in line with our expectations in terms of pricing and modelling of the risks.”

The reinsurer added that it anticipated prices and conditions to remain a “sustained, stable level” for upcoming treaty renewals next year in both property and casualty, with a balance of supply and demand in most markets.

Specialty focus

Hannover Re added during its live briefing in Monaco (pictured) that its strategy included a “continued focus” on identifying emerging risks alongside its business partners and then developing covers for them.

It cited its recent April 2024 development of a world-first cloud outage cat bond that tapped into additional non-traditional capital for cyber risks coverage resulting from cloud outages.

This was necessary because “losses associated with cyber risks are increasing substantially, owing to digital transformation and technological advances”.

On top of the growing cyber threat, Sven Althoff, the member of Hannover Re’s executive board responsible for property and casualty reinsurance, added: “While there is still a need for action on cyber risks, climate change is and will remain one of the greatest challenges of our time.

“Recent floods and heatwaves have once again highlighted the continued dramatic proliferation of extreme weather events. This is a strain on the economy and is increasingly putting insurers to the test.

“At the same time, the protection gap is widening as losses rise, especially in emerging countries, and this is where innovative covers can help to cover climate-related risks and offer more insurance protection.”