Investment in reinsurance pays off: Howden

Bradley Maltese (pictured), Howden Re chief executive officer, may have only been in the job for seven months but he told Intelligent Insurer that what the business has achieved and the positive response the company has had from the market, from signing up new clients to onboarding new talent, is “staggering”.

“We’re ahead of where we thought we’d be,” Maltese said. “And it’s just a start. Let’s be frank, it’s a long journey and there’s a lot to do.

“Going forward to 1/1 in general, we’ve had quite a lot of new business wins. That sets us up well for 2023, which is very good news.”

Howden Re has hired nearly 100 people in the last year, he said, and 60 of those are treaty reinsurance people. Previously, Howden’s business has been more facultative, he said, and the company has hired 20 fac people, as well as 20 people on the managing general agent side.

“We’ve made a significant investment in reinsurance and we’re seeing the rewards already. We’re seeing the benefits where clients are pleased,” said Maltese.

In terms of challenges, he points to property-catastrophe supply and demand.

“The situation with Hurricane Ian has made everyone think again and ask themselves, ‘what do we need to do here?’ Property-cat is where we’re seeing more capacity is required .

“We’re not seeing massive new markets coming in as of yet. But this has to be some of the best trading markets for reinsurers we’ve seen in many years—and I’m going back to Hurricane Katrina. It’s a great time for people to come in and there’s certainly a need.”

Maltese said there are requests for limit on property-cat in certain areas, but he said “it’s not a crunch, it’s not squeezed”.

Howden’s merger with TigerRisk, expected to complete in Q1 2023, is a source of excitement across the company. Maltese said: “That type of acquisition is just fantastic for us and our business.”