US cat renewals trend

While US catastrophe risks do not feature heavily in the April 1 reinsurance renewals, the deals that did occur saw a continuation of the trends seen in January. In its analysis of the April 1 reinsurance renewals, reinsurance intermediary Aon Benfield noted that renewals with US east coast hurricane exposure generally saw increases of between 10% and 25% on a risk adjusted basis and capacity continued to tighten. Several programs with later renewal dates entered the markets early to get ahead of the potential supply/demand imbalance anticipated at June and July renewal dates, the broker added. The continued uncertainty about the potential inability of the Florida Hurricane Catastrophe Fund (FHCF) to pay weighed on the April 1 market, Aon Benfield added, and began to incrementally move reinsurance pricing higher than witnessed at January 1, 2009.