European storm Boris could have taken a much worse toll on (re)insurers, but improvements to infrastructure and underwriting standards made it less impactful than it could have been, Daniele de Bosini, strategic growth leader for EMEA at Aon reinsurance solutions, told Insurance Insider in a live video interview at Baden-Baden.
This was an example of how the industry could recognise a different side of loss events, he said.
“We don’t spend enough time in talking about the good surprises.”
Another positive trend has been lower inflation, as this had been a source of uncertainty over the past few years in relation to insured values and loss-cost trends, de Bosini observed.
“When these uncertainties start to reduce, this is clearly a benefit for the entire insurance and reinsurance chain, starting from policyholders,” he said.
Most European cedants remained within their nat-cat budgets for the year, which has been assisted by the fact they have substantially lifted these budgets over the past 24 months.
“The distribution of the losses is much more with insurers than reinsurers,” he said.
However, Aon believes the market is entering a “new phase” after the post-2022 hard market, with discipline remaining but momentum shifting towards clients.
De Bosini said: “We are asking reinsurers to become more relevant [...] to be more supportive and find solutions for clients’ needs.”
Whilst insurers are becoming more comfortable with their increased nat-cat budgets, they cannot handle meaningful volatility on top of that sum, the broker said.
De Bosini added that there are many ways reinsurers can help to mitigate that risk, including facultative reinsurance.