LONDON & HAMILTON — December 19, 2002. A growing number of global reinsurance groups, including new Bermuda start-ups, have identified the Internet as a key channel for receiving 2002/3 renewal business. Recent weeks have seen a significant number of reinsurers commit to serving clients on-line via the inreon trading system. These include both Axis Specialty and Montpelier Re, two Bermuda-based operations established last year in the wake of record industry losses resulting from the September 11 terrorist attacks.
The innovative nature of the Bermudian reinsurance market is thought to be ideally suited to the opportunities offered by on-line reinsurance trading. Dick Blum, Vice Chairman of Axis Specialty, commented: “Bermuda has a reputation for being in the vanguard of industry developments and Axis’s participation on the inreon platform is just another example of this.”
Axis Specialty began operations in November last year with capital of $1.6bn and is now accepting catastrophe excess of loss business via inreon. Montpelier Re was founded by White Mountains Insurance Group and Benfield Group in December 2001 with an initial capitalisation of $1bn. Rated A- (Excellent) by AM Best, it also plans to write CAT XL business through the platform.
In addition, Alea London Limited, Tokio Marine Europe and Sirius have all committed to respond to risks submitted by brokers and cedants. All underwriters are obliged to answer submissions within pre-defined timeframes selected by the reinsurance buyer and all quotes offered on-line are binding. Sirius, rated A- by Standard & Poor’s, is the largest reinsurance company in Scandinavia and has already bound its first risks on-line. Alea, Sirius and Tokio Marine Europe are all accepting Cat XL and facultative property business. Furthermore, Allianz Re will be participating on the platform for facultative property business from the Netherlands and Scandinavia.
“The inreon platform offers a number of important advantages for reinsurers and will help Alea further improve its service to clients,” declared Stephen Cane, Chief Executive Officer of Alea London. The Alea Group is rated A- by both AM Best and Standard & Poor’s and has operating capital of US$594.5 million.
Meanwhile Axa Re has begun supporting inreon’s Industry Loss Warranty platform. It joins a list of more than 20 companies currently operating on the system’s first indexed catastrophe product that also includes ACE Tempest Re, Munich Re, Platinum Re, PXRE, RenaissanceRe, Swiss Re Financial Products, Tokio Millennium and XL Re.
“With the world’s two largest reinsurers as principal shareholders inreon has always enjoyed significant support from the reinsurance community,” explained Kaj Ahlmann, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of inreon. “But now that support has greatly expanded to include a much greater range of international groups. It clearly demonstrates the independent, market-wide nature of the platform and its comprehensive global reach.”
In total there are 21 reinsurers supporting the inreon trading platform that, together, represent more than 50% of capacity available from the world’s top 25 groups. Reinsurance members pay an annual group subscription fee of US$30,000 for an unlimited number of users. Alternatively members may elect to pay a US$50,000 subscription fee over time as transactions are completed. The deferred fee is paid through a 50% transaction fee surcharge.
Tags: reinsurance, RenaissanceRe
