The non-profit association behind the Rendez-Vous de Septembre (RVS) international reinsurance industry conference in April 2020 announced it had canceled the 2020 edition. The organizers cited uncertainties surrounding the COVID-19 crisis as the reason behind their decision. RVS brings together around 3 000 leaders from the global insurance, reinsurance, and brokerage industry and marks the beginning of the annual cycle of renewals of corporate insurance contracts and reinsurance treaties.

Non-life reinsurer TransRe in July 2019 completed the redomiciliation of its Swiss subsidiary, TransRe Zurich, to Luxembourg. Owner Transatlantic Holdings had announced the move in September 2018. TransRe Zurich changes its name to TransRe Europe in the process. In addition to P/C, the company also reinsures Accident & Health risks. The continental European offices in Munich, Paris and Zurich, as well as Dubai, become branch offices of Luxembourg. TransRe

Lockton in March 2019 named Timothy Gardner as CEO, partnered with Nicholas Durant and Claude Yoder, of its new company, Lockton Global Re. Gardner will be based in New York City, USA. Gardner joins Lockton from Guy Carpenter, where he was CEO for U.S. Operations. Previously, Gardner was with Marsh as Risk Management Global leader and COO for the US and Canada divisions.  He was also Eastern Regional Manager

Lockton in March 2019 named Nicholas Durant as CEO partner, along with Tim Gardner and Claude Yoder, of Lockton Global Re. This new reinsurance unit will incorporate Lockton’s specialty team based in London as well as its current reinsurance units Lockton Re U.S. LLC and Lockton Re U.K. LLP.   Durant will be based in New York. Durant was previously managing director with Guy Carpenter, and president of Marsh Captive

Replicating an earlier deal in 2017 between the European Union (E.U.) and the United States (U.S.), the latter in January 2019 signed a “covered agreement” with the United Kingdom (UK) that protects their respective international insurers and reinsurers when doing business with each other. The new covered agreement basically provides for a limited but very useful form of mutual recognition of reinsurance companies and of (re)insurance regulators. The existing

Lloyd’s in October 2018 confirmed it will be able to write facultative and excess of loss treaty reinsurance on Lloyd’s Brussels paper from January 1, 2019 across all markets in the European Economic Area (EEA). Should the UK not secure Solvency II reinsurance equivalence in 2019, Lloyd’s will be ready to process proportional treaty reinsurance business through Lloyd’s Brussels from January 1, 2020. In any event, the market said

U.S. reinsurer TransRe in September 2018 announced plans to redomicile its continental European legal entity TransRe Zurich to Luxembourg and change its name. The continental European offices in Munich, Paris and Zurich, as well as Dubai, will become branch offices of Luxembourg. Commenting on the move, Paul Bonny, President TransRe Europe and Asia Pacific, said: “we are now simplifying our corporate structure [for] our European, Middle Eastern and North

Risk Strategies, a privately held U.S. brokerage and risk management firm, in July 2018 acquired Oxford Risk Management Group, a Sparks, Maryland-based provider of alternative risk and captive insurance and consulting. Terms of the deal were not disclosed. Established in 2010, Oxford Risk Management Group specializes in conducting captive feasibility analysis, coordination and management of turn-key captive insurance company arrangements, both domestically and internationally. The company is led by

The Blockchain Insurance Industry Initiative (B3i) in March 2018 incorporated B3i Services AG in Zürich, Switzerland. B3i has been a collaborative initiative of 15 global insurers and reinsurers who came together in late 2016 to explore and test the potential of using Distributed Ledger Technologies within the re/insurance industry. B3i Services will provide insurance solutions on a blockchain platform, striving for improved speed, transparency, quality, security, and cost. It

Theo Lutgendorff in April 2017 joined Aon Benfield’s Amsterdam, The Netherlands, team for the Life, Accident, Health and Income lines. He works with insurers and pension funds in the Netherlands and Scandinavia, with a specific focus on the development of large accounts for traditional and Solvency II – related reinsurance solutions. The Amsterdam office of Aon Benfield, Aon’s reinsurance unit, now employs 28 professionals with a variety of specializations

Following the successful conclusion in January 2017 of the bilateral agreement on insurance and reinsurance between the European Union and the U.S., industry body Insurance Europe welcomed the deal, supporting in particular the removal of the discriminatory collateral requirements that E.U. reinsurers were subject to when placing business in the U.S.. This change is expected to support bilateral trade in insurance and reinsurance. However, the National Conference of Insurance

From the October 2015 Baden-Baden Reinsurance Meeting. The consolidation of the reinsurance industry that is being observed in 2015 apparently is driven by capacity overload, successive years of rate declines and persistently falling profitability. But are mergers and acquisitions (M&As) the right answer? Of course, sheer scale matters but the upside of better mutualization hits its limits fairly quickly and unmanaged diversification is fraught with dangers. In fact, new

Aon Benfield in September 2015 announced the appointment of Colin Dutkiewicz as Director of its Accident, Health and Life team, based in London and reporting to Roger Smith, Head of Aon Benfield’s Accident, Health and Life team. Colin joins Aon from Swiss Re, where he spent five years as head of pricing for Africa, client markets director for UK & Ireland, and most recently as global corporate actuary. Prior

When comparing pooling networks, a distinction is often made between Integrated and Non-Integrated Networks. But we suggest a far more important distinction can be made, based on whether or not the network’s pooling operations are based on reinsurance.