Go ever so cautiously into the good year

Capital is everything in the 2009 reinsurance market. But a great many companies are starting the year with their financial resources significantly reduced compared with a year ago. The bottom line message for reinsurers has never been clearer: with poor prospects for investment returns, they are badly in need of a good underwriting performance over the coming year

I have never been happier in my professional life to put a year in the rear view mirror,” said XL Capital chief executive Mike McGavick. Few of his peers endured such a difficult year as he did in 2008 when XL burnt through more than $6bn of capital, but most of them are likely to share that sentiment to some degree.