Amlin reported their Q1 figures today and had some interesting comments on their reinsurance and retrocession spend that was down £50 million on the quarter (from 23% of gross premiums to 18%). Approx £20 million was due to a business line withdrawal with the remainder due to “lower rates and improved cover available on attractive terms”.
Amlin also stated “with the assistance of more sophisticated modelling, we have taken the decision to internalise a proportion of a number of programmes. Given the diversifying nature of many of our insurance classes, this has the effect of increasing mean expected profitability whilst only modestly increasing extreme tail risk.”
The use by insurers of their economic capital models for reinsurance/retrocession purchases is a trend that is only going to increase as we enter into the risk based solvency world under Solvency II. Current market conditions have resulted in reinsurers being more open to offering multi-line aggregate coverage which protect against both frequency and severity with generous exposure inclusions.
It will only be a matter of time, in my opinion, before reinsurers underwrite coverage directly based upon a insurer’s own capital model, particularly when such a model has been approved by a firm’s regulator or been given the blessing of a rating agency.
Also in the future I expect that firms will more openly disclose their operating risk profiles. There was a trend a few years ago whereby firms such as Endurance (pre- Charman) and Aspen did include net risk profiles, such as those in the graphs below, in their investor presentations and supplements (despite the bad blood in the current Endurance-Aspen hostile take-over bid, at least it’s one thing they can say they have in common!).
click to enlarge
Unfortunately, it was a trend that did not catch on and was quickly discontinued by those firms. If insurers and reinsurers are increasingly using their internal capital models in key decision making, investors will need to insist on understanding them in more detail. A first step would be more public disclosure of the results, the assumptions, and their strengths and weaknesses.
This blog represents my personal views and is not reflective of the views or opinions held by any company or employer I work for currently or have worked for in the past. The views expressed herein are based solely upon publicly available data. No views expressed herein should be taken as an endorsement to take any particular course of action in the markets. The basis of this blog is that different views should be expressed and readers make up their own minds on the what they believe and act accordingly.
deconstructingrisk 
very interesting post