Guy Carpenter Publishes Marine & Energy Report on Reinsurance Marketplace

Guy Carpenter & Company Inc., Marsh & McLennan’s reinsurance specialist, has released its comprehensive Marine & Energy Reinsurance Review Report 2005, which identifies key influences driving decision-making in the marine and energy reinsurance marketplace.

“The 2005 report highlights issues regarding construction risks, marine hull war risks, terrorism, regulatory changes, rogue waves and the 2004 hurricane season,” said the announcement. “The report also includes an overview of reinsurance market capacity, renewals at January 1, 2005, an overview of the development of the CL370 run-off clause in the UK and ratings for major marine markets.”

Tony Pointing, head of the company’s Marine and Energy division in the UK, commented: “It traditionally has been viewed as more difficult to model or actuarially assess risk in the marine and energy business sector because of its specific nature,” said. “Identifying and analyzing risk, however, are becoming increasingly important as the first steps in both the purchasing and underwriting of marine and energy reinsurance.”

Some of the reports observations were as follows:

— With the construction risks marketplace proving to be a significant issue for marine hull underwriters, the report addresses the existing problems and solutions offered and anticipates likely future changes.
— The main focus by reinsurers at 2004 year-end was the mounting Hurricane Ivan loss to the offshore energy market – at the time of writing, this is estimated easily to exceed U.S.$2 billion.
— As reinsurers continue using computer-aided rating programs to determine pricing and many marine underwriters are increasingly answerable to non-marine management, a larger focus on exposure analysis, as well as a possible restructuring and pricing of marine business, might be expected.

Copies of the report, Marine & Energy Reinsurance Review Report 2005, are available for download at www.guycarp.com.