Antares and Qatar to buy reinsurance as one
Antares and Qatar Insurance Group, the company’s new owner, will re-examine their approach to buying reinsurance buying in an attempt to manage its exposures more efficiently, Richard Anson, head of ceded reinsurance, Antares, told Monte Carlo Today.
They will also seek conversations about using more multiclass covers, Anson said. He added that all buyers need to consider the value of coverage—not just price—when allocating their reinsurance spend—something he plans to do more of as part of Qatar going forward.
“The key thing for me is value and that isn’t just about price. Of course price is a large part of that, but it’s also about managing our exposures as economically as possible within the current market environment,” he said.
“Whatever I save on the price, we’re going to lose more through the front door, so it’s all about buying the right programme—and that’s always been my mentality.”
Anson said that his intent is still to use composite coverage despite the company not getting as far with buying joint covers as he would have liked.
“While there is more composite capacity available in the market, we haven’t reached the landing of it. However, by bringing programmes together, you’re also managing the retentions and making sure that they don’t clash,” he said.
“Looking at diversification is great because it gives us the ability to absorb losses. But if we can get the same loss from a number of different lines, then that’s anti-diversification—and that’s the accumulation we need to manage effectively.”
Anson also spoke of challenges facing the company. He said that collateralised reinsurers are looking only to cover short-term risk, but explained that some of the new firms are willing to provide a longer term solution.
“I like the sound of one of the newer outfits; it’s being able to understand some of our lines that include longer tail exposures,” he said.
“One problem that I have with collateralised reinsurers is that they want to cut business off at the end of the year, whereas some of these new outfits seem to understand better that there are long-term benefits to be gained. For example, I would pay more to have marine liability elements alongside marine hull cover.”
Following Antares’s being bought by the Qatar Insurance Group, Anson spoke of the need to leverage the company’s position as part of a larger group in order to buy more effectively and manage the group more efficiently.
“We’ve been carrying out a project over the last couple of months looking at group reinsurance, which would include multiclass covers,” he said. “This is the start of more of a group approach.
“While this will go more quickly in some areas than others, reinsurance is one of those areas that can work quite quickly and efficiently. If you’re talking about working together as underwriters, then it will take a little bit longer.”
