Arch, Ark, Chubb & AIG stepped up to grease 1.1 property renewals

Arch Capital,  Ark,  Chubb's Tempest Re, and  AIG's Validus Re may have stepped forward with added capacity to help grease the 1.1 property renewals, a key cat zone cedant has indicated.

The Louisiana insurer of last resort LCPIC said the overall shortfall in capacity had driven up rates "more than expected" but not enough to lock primaries out altogether.

LCPIC, which did not reveal details of its programme except to acknowledge that it is not as heavy as the mid-year, said it ultimately faced “marginally tighter capacity” for coastal programmes placed.

Increased available capacity from a handful of reinsurers including Arch Capital, Ark, Chubb Tempest Re and AIG's Validus Re were said to have “partially offset” the headline reports of reinsurer retreat, of which LCPIC called out Amlin, Axis, AXA XL, Fidelis, and Nephila, among others.

Heading into the renewal cycle, LOCPIC had been roughly expecting loss-free layers would see risk adjusted rate increase in the neighbourhood of 30%, CEO Richard Newberry reported to a recent board meeting.

By early December, FOT's were drawing a median risk-adjusted rate hike for loss free layers of 42% and a wide range of 67% to 155% for loss impacted layers, his presentation to the board shows.

LCPIC suffered a run-up in policy counts in 2022, with the rise accelerating notably through the second half. The policy count more than tripled in 2022, including 77% growth in the second half, leaving the group with 133,037 policies in-force by early January.

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