Inflation may hack at London market reserves; Beazley in spotlight

Runaway inflation will eat away at the reserve sufficiency of key London market players to the tune of $500 million and, on some stress-test scenarios, could force  Beazley to reverse course and have to shore up reserves, a key global brokerage is warning investors.

"Inflation impact to reserves could total up to $500m in aggregate" for  Hiscox, Lancashire and Beazley, with Lancashire least exposed as a share of equity or market cap and  Beazley most exposed, analysts at UBS wrote in a report to clients. On the UBS official inflation forecasts, expect $310 million, $90 million and $106 million in reserve release in 2022E for  Hiscox,  Lancashire and  Beazley, respectively.

But take inflation a bit higher for longer or accelerate the pain to year one and  Beazley risks going from a net releaser to a net writer of such provisions, UBS warns. For handling the impact of the heightened inflation outlook, reserve assumptions at  Hiscox and  Lancashire "appear robust," analysts say. " Beazley less so."

" Beazley appears most vulnerable with the estimated release being insufficient to cover the inflation uplift risk, hence further reserve strengthening would be expected under these scenarios," analysts wrote.

Tail length and settlement speed set the pain levels during inflationary bouts, UBS notes and  Beazley's "greater sensitivity" follows a "slower payment pattern" visible in the historical data. Ultimate loss ratios at  Beazley have "developed less favourably compared to  Hiscox and  Lancashire," analysts warn. Under the same stress tests " Lancashire and  Hiscox demonstrate resilience."

Even outside those over-forecast inflation scenarios,  Beazley will find it increasingly hard to justify release of reserves. Reserve surplus "will reduce, and fall close to the bottom end of the targeted range.

"Timing this is challenging, but we find it hard to believe that a Chief Actuary would be able to justify that inflation levels assumed in reserves as at 31st December 2021 are the same as today."

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