How are you perceived by your peers?

As the final interviews for the Intelligent Insurer 2014 Global Reinsurance Research Report draw to a close, interest in the research and its findings is growing. Here, we explain the rationale behind the research and why many in the market view it as useful.

The 2014 Global Reinsurance Research Report details the data and findings of a four-month long comprehensive research project into the reinsurance industry conducted by the Intelligent Insurer Market Research team between January and April 2014. It builds on the findings and knowledge base established in the 2013 report but takes things to another level again.

As this issue went to press, around 1,000 executives had been interviewed or submitted responses giving us more than 25,000 unique data points regarding companies and individuals across the sector globally.

The aim of the report is to gain a detailed understanding of which companies and individuals, spanning all the sectors essential to this global industry, are highly regarded within their respective markets and why.

There are many ways of conducting such a piece of research. We opted for a two-pronged approach.

In stage one of the research our research team conducted in-depth interviews with executives working within the industry globally. Most important, when we conducted these interviews we also asked participants why they made their choices. These responses represent exceptionally valuable information to the companies being mentioned as they also reveal many pertinent issues within the industry at the moment.

This year more than ever, stage one generated some fascinating themes and interesting results. Many reinsurance buyers, for example, have admitted to rationalising their programmes and leveraging the intense competition in the market as a result of alternative forms of capital to seek better rates—often at the expense of mid-tier reinsurers.

Many buyers have also invested heavily in increasing their sophistication around the way they buy reinsurance, hiring former reinsurance executives and brokers to work on their reinsurance programmes and investing in internal systems that give them a better handle on their exposures.

Another theme that has emerged is that some brokers are increasingly directing premium to a smaller number of larger players.

The first stage of the survey is also used to compile shortlists, which represent the companies mentioned the most in each category. These then comprise the second part of the survey where participants are asked to score these pre-set lists of companies out of ten.

The reason for conducting the survey in this way is because while stage one can be reflective of a company’s popularity, number of clients or market share, stage two is a pure reflection of how that same business is perceived in the market for various qualities.

It is worth noting at this point that in various publications we use this research to recognise and reward companies. We held an awards ceremony at the Monte Carlo Rendez-vous last year, for example.

But the full findings of the Global Reinsurance Research Report are much more comprehensive than can be revealed in awards ceremonies. As well as publishing every company-specific comment that is harvested, breakdowns are also published of how companies fared by region and by sector.

The 2014 project in particular has taken things several steps further in the extent to which it drills down into the performance and perception of firms in different regions. Full shortlists were compiled this year covering eight geographical regions globally. Each makes fascinating reading in terms of which companies are rated highly by respondents especially when compared with other parts of the world.

In addition to covering reinsurers, it also covers reinsurance brokers, a range of service providers to the industry such as ratings agencies, risk modelling firms and law firms and rates the performance of banks across a number of criteria.

We feel this report can potentially be of great value to the companies it features. It represents an honest and unbiased assessment of how different companies are perceived in terms of their different qualities. The various break-out tables mean it is also possible to see how this varies by sector and in different parts of the world. The comments we include may also provide a deeper insight into why some companies have performed as they have in different areas.

For more information about the 2014 report or to see a sample of the 2013 research report, or to obtain the report itself, please contact Chris Milton at: cmilton@newtonmedia.co.uk

For more information on the previous awards and the research report, visit:
www.intelligentinsurer.com/listing/surveys-awards