Better relationships can unlock capital supply, says Howden Re

On the eve of Intelligent Insurer’s Re/insurance Outlook Europe 2024 in Zürich, we caught up with our first speaker on day two of the meeting, Massimo Reina, international chief executive officer at Howden Re, to have a peek at what he’ll be talking about at the conference.

Reina’s session at the event is titled: “Strengthen reinsurer/cedant/broker partners: balance capacity, risk and expectations” and our first question was to ask why he chose this particular subject.

“The topic matters because innovation is needed in reinsurance, and teamwork drives innovation,” Reina explained. “This, in turn, boosts capital and capacity in the market.”

“That’s why I keep looking for ways to improve collaboration among reinsurers, cedants and brokers.”

Some of the key points Reina will cover in his talk on Thursday are the importance of reinsurance market innovation, current trends in capital and capacity, market changes that are encouraging innovation and the most effective ways to match capital to risk.

Referring to the title of his session, Reina elaborated on the benefits of a better three-way relationship between parties. “Better relationships among all parties can help unlock capital supply which will positively impact pricing, placements and ultimately client outcomes,” he said.

“Close relationships are crucial in order to navigate both hard and soft markets,” Reina continued, “because in both scenarios there are always challenges and opportunities.”

Reina does not believe this varies by line of business. “In more specialised sectors, people can be particularly close, but relationships often span multiple lines of business,” he said. 

He concluded with a snapshot of the central points he hopes delegates will consider in relation to the topic: “The three key themes are collaboration, competition, and courage—our ‘three Cs’—in matching capital to risk.”

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