Catlin rebrands reinsurance units as Catlin Re

Catlin Group is to rebrand its reinsurance operations as Catlin Re. Matthew Paskin, executive director of group underwriting at Catlin, will become executive chairman of the newly formed unit.

Paskin said the re/insurance group had taken the decision to reflect the rapid growth of its reinsurance operations in recent years and because the company believes a separate brand will help clients better understand its various functions and product offerings.

Although this move is simply a branding exercise and does not reflect any changes in the ways its capital is allocated or the group is structured, Paskin also believes that regulators may one day seek greater clarity from companies that write both direct and reinsurance business. Should that happen, this is the first step towards achieving providing that clarity.

“The Catlin culture and brand is dear to us all and this is not a departure from that,” Paskin said. “But this also reflects what we have achieved on the reinsurance side. We are a top tier player with multiple locations and a full product suite. Certainly in some offices where we might have just a few people focused on reinsurance, this will help them better establish the brand in people’s minds. It is a natural development but nothing changes in terms of our capital structure.”

He said that the parameters of pricing and underwriting will be determined centrally by the reinsurance executive committee formed by Catlin in 2010 (and now responsible for Catlin Re) and that underwriters locally will have autonomy with these guidelines. Part of the reason for this structure, is because many of Catlin’s clients are global and the group needs consistency in the pricing and terms and conditions used by its teams around the world.

“Some 80 percent of our cedants deal with us in more than one hub so we need consistency in the way we deal with them,” Paskin said. “The new brand will give us a cohesive external picture reflecting the consistency we have internally,” he said.

Catlin Re will have its own logo going forward but it will closely resemble the Catlin brand. “This is an evolution of what we have achieved on the reinsurance side with Catlin,” Paskin said. “We are becoming a substantial player and this new brand reflects this.”

He also believes that increasingly stringent regulatory regimes could eventually force re/insurance groups to allocate their capital more specifically against certain risks. Although he says he disagrees with this logic and would resist it, this move represents the first step towards establishing such a structure should it be required.

“Clients will sometimes ask: if we have losses from a big event on the direct and reinsurance sides how we allocate capital? That is not an unreasonable question. But we have very robust capital allocation models and we have full confidence in those and our business model. We can offer very robust answers to that question but from a regulatory perspective you never know what is around the corner.”