FOCUS ON IUMI IN AMSTERDAM AS WELL AS MONTE CARLO

The meeting of the International Union of Marine Insurance in Amsterdam, which follows on the heels of the Reinsurance Rendez-vous in Monte Carlo beginning Monday week, will be equally interesting to market watchers attempting to estimate the impact of hurricane Katrina on the marine, energy and general catastrophe markets for insurance and reinsurance. Last year’s IUMI in Singapore was held just as hurricane Ivan approached the Mexican gulf, causing a brief double-digit spike in rates for some operators. However, since then the market has been softening, although there are indications that writers have competed less on the Gulf of Mexico and more elsewhere. IUMI president Patrick de La Morinerie, also deputy CEO of Axa Corporate Solutions, observed that there was a strong pricing differential for customers, depending on where there catastrophe exposure lay and how loyal they had been to their insurers. Mr de La Morinerie wondered whether the latest situation might mean that there was a localised capacity crunch, as well as a requirement for increased insured limits because of the increased price of oil. Meanwhile, Motley Fool observed that companies that had recently talked of shifting capital into the marine and energy underwriting market included XL Capital, Ace, Aspen, RenaissanceRe and Platinum. Hannover Re and AIG were thought to have significant business in natural catastrophe and/or marine and energy policies.