Article

Big investments are being lined up by global reinsurance giants looking to gain a
foothold in India. Even as the Insurance (Laws) Amendment Bill, 2008, to allow
foreign reinsurers to set up branch operations is getting delayed in Parliament,
bullish global reinsurers are getting ready to enter the Indian market, with many of
them slowly in the early stages of developing business through their offshore
branches.
Most global reinsurers are now developing their insurance business offshore. India
is an exciting market to be present in. We are encouraged to learn about the
possibility of the Insurance Bill being cleared in the Parliament with regard to the
opening of branches by foreign reinsurers, said Victor Peignet, CEO, SCOR Global
P&C, the sixth largest global reinsurer.
We hope to have a branch office in India conducting reinsurance business as soon
as it is permissible to do so. Such a perspective suits the multi-domestic business
model based upon which the SCOR Group operates, Peignet said. SCOR is
currently conducting business with its Indian clients offshore from Singapore.
Currently, public sector GIC Re is the only reinsurance company in India.
More than euro 1 trillion ($1.382 trillion) in additional premiums will be generated in
the Asian region by 2020 with growth markets such as China and India contributing
almost 70 per cent, said a top official of Munich Re. Ludger Arnoldussen,
management board member, Munich Re, worlds largest reinsurer, said as a reliable
partner of Indias non-life insurance industry for more than five decades, Munich Re
sees India as an important emerging market with high potential and is ready to
participate in its growth, offering professional expertise, global knowledge and
unmatched financial strength.
At the moment our reinsurance premiums from India are about euro 30 million
($41.5 million), while we have roughly euro 1 billion ($1.382 billion) in China.
Regulation in India is still too spontaneous and some protectionist tendencies still
exist, Arnoldussen said. Michel M Lis, Group CEO, Swiss Re, the second largest
global reinsurer said in the long term, Swiss Re sees India is an important market. If
I analyse our Indian reinsurance portfolio, the opportunities on life side have been
real and we have taken advantage of them. We would like to increase our business
by participating in government schemes that we have been talking but nothing much
has happened till now, he said.
Swiss Re which is keen to set up a health insurance company is currently
negotiating with L&T for a joint venture. Hannover, the third largest global reinsurer,
has a collaboration with Hannover Re for developing life reinsurance business. Ulrich

Wallin, CEO, Hannover said the company already has a portfolio of around euro 6070 million.
India is an interesting market. We have grown our business in certain pockets. The
premiums are sufficient enough to cover the losses. We will be seriously considering
to set up a branch if we allowed to do so. Like China, if we are allowed to open a
branch India, we will look at that possibility, Wallin said. It will help us doing
Reinsurance is insurance that is purchased by an insurance company (the "ceding company" or
"cedant" or "cedent" under the arrangement) from one or more other insurance companies (the
"reinsurer") as a means of risk management, sometimes in practice including tax mitigation and
other reasons described below. The ceding company and the reinsurer enter into a reinsurance
agreement which details the conditions upon which the reinsurer would pay a share of the claims
incurred by the ceding company. The reinsurer is paid a "reinsurance premium" by the ceding
company, which issues insurance policies to its own policyholders.
The reinsurer may be either a specialist reinsurance company, which only undertakes
reinsurance business, or another insurance company.
For example, assume an insurer sells 1,000 policies, each with a $1 million policy limit.
Theoretically, the insurer could lose $1 million on each policy totaling up to $1 billion. It may be
better to pass some risk to a reinsurer as this will reduce the ceding company's exposure to risk.
There are two basic methods of reinsurance:
1. Facultative Reinsurance, which is negotiated separately for each insurance policy that
is reinsured. Facultative reinsurance is normally purchased by ceding companies for
individual risks not covered, or insufficiently covered, by their reinsurance treaties, for
amounts in excess of the monetary limits of their reinsurance treaties and for unusual
risks. Underwriting expenses, and in particular personnel costs, are higher for such
business because each risk is individually underwritten and administered. However as
they can separately evaluate each risk reinsured, the reinsurer's underwriter can price
the contract to more accurately reflect the risks involved. Ultimately, a facultative
certificate is issued by the reinsurance company to the ceding company reinsuring that
one policy.
2. Treaty Reinsurance (not to be confused with the Reinsurance Treaty) means that the
ceding company and the reinsurer negotiate and execute a reinsurance contract. The
reinsurer then covers the specified share of more than one insurance policy issued by
the ceding company which come within the scope of that contract. The reinsurance
contract may oblige the reinsurer to accept reinsurance of all contracts within the scope
(known as "obligatory" reinsurance), or it may allow the insurer to choose which risks it
wants to cede, with the reinsurer obliged to accept such risks (known as "facultativeobligatory" or "fac oblig" reinsurance). Ultimately, a treaty is issued by the reinsurance
company to the ceding company reinsuring more than one policy.

There are two main types of treaty reinsurance, proportional and non-proportional, which are
detailed below. Under proportional reinsurance, the reinsurer's share of the risk is defined for
each separate policy, while under non-proportional reinsurance the reinsurer's liability is based on
the aggregate claims incurred by the ceding office. In the past 30 years there has been a major
shift from proportional to non-proportional reinsurance in the property and casualty fields.

Functions[edit]
Almost all insurance companies have a reinsurance program. The ultimate goal of that program is
to reduce their exposure to loss by passing part of the risk of loss to a reinsurer or a group of
reinsurers. In the United States, insurance is regulated at the state level, which only allows
insurers to issue policies with a maximum limit of 10% of their surplus (net worth), unless those
policies are reinsured. In other jurisdictions allowance is typically made for reinsurance when
determining statutory required solvency margins.

Risk transfer[edit]
With reinsurance, the insurer can issue policies with higher limits than would otherwise be
allowed, thus being able to take on more risk because some of that risk is now transferred to the
reinsurer. The reason for this is the number of insurers that have suffered significant losses and
become financially impaired. Over the years there has been a tendency for reinsurance to
become a science rather than an art: thus reinsurers have become much more reliant on actuarial
models and on tight review of the companies they are willing to reinsure. They review their
financials closely, examine the experience of the proposed business to be reinsured, review the
underwriters that will write that business, review their rates, and much more.

Income smoothing[edit]
Reinsurance can make an insurance company's results more predictable by absorbing larger
losses and reducing the amount of capital needed to provide coverage. The risks are diversified,
with the reinsurer bearing some of the loss incurred by the insurance company. The income
smoothing comes forward as the losses of the cedant are essentially limited. This fosters stability
in claim payouts and caps indemnification costs.

Surplus relief[edit]
An insurance company's writings are limited by its balance sheet (this test is known as
the solvency margin). When that limit is reached, an insurer can do one of the following: stop
writing new business, increase its capital, or (in the United States) buy "surplus relief".

Arbitrage[edit]
The insurance company may be motivated by arbitrage in purchasing reinsurance coverage at a
lower rate than they charge the insured for the underlying risk, whatever the class of insurance.
In general, the reinsurer may be able to cover the risk at a lower premium than the insurer
because:

The reinsurer may have some intrinsic cost advantage due to economies of scale or
some other efficiency.

Reinsurers may operate under weaker regulation than their clients. This enables them to

use less capital to cover any risk, and to make less prudent assumptions when valuing the
risk.
Reinsurers may operate under a more favourable tax regime than their clients.
Reinsurers will often have better access to underwriting expertise and to claims

experience data, enabling them to assess the risk more accurately and reduce the need for
contingency margins in pricing the risk
Even if the regulatory standards are the same, the reinsurer may be able to hold

smaller actuarial reserves than the cedant if it thinks the premiums charged by the cedant are
excessively prudent.
The reinsurer may have a more diverse portfolio of assets and especially liabilities than

the cedant. This may create opportunities for hedging that the cedant could not exploit alone.
Depending on the regulations imposed on the reinsurer, this may mean they can hold fewer
assets to cover the risk.
The reinsurer may have a greater risk appetite than the insurer.

Reinsurer's expertise[edit]
The insurance company may want to avail itself of the expertise of a reinsurer, or the reinsurer's
ability to set an appropriate premium, in regard to a specific (specialised) risk. The reinsurer will
also wish to apply this expertise to the underwriting in order to protect their own interests.

Creating a manageable and profitable portfolio of insured risks[edit]

By choosing a particular type of reinsurance method, the insurance company may be able to
create a more balanced and homogeneous portfolio of insured risks. This would lend greater
predictability to the portfolio results on net basis (after reinsurance) and would be reflected in
income smoothing. While income smoothing is one of the objectives of reinsurance
arrangements, the mechanism is by way of balancing the portfolio.

Types[edit]
Proportional[edit]
Under proportional reinsurance, one or more reinsurers take a stated percentage share of each
policy that an insurer produces ("writes"). This means that the reinsurer will receive that stated
percentage of the premiums and will pay the same percentage of claims. In addition,
the reinsurer will allow a "ceding commission" to the insurer to cover the costs incurred by the
insurer (marketing, underwriting, claims etc.).
The arrangement may be "quota share" or "surplus reinsurance" (also known as surplus of line or
variable quota share treaty) or a combination of the two. Under a quota share arrangement, a
fixed percentage (say 75%) of each insurance policy is reinsured. Under a surplus share
arrangement, the ceding company decides on a "retention limit" - say $100,000. The ceding
company retains the full amount of each risk, with a maximum of $100,000 per policy or per risk,
and the balance of the risk is reinsured.
The ceding company may seek a quota share arrangement for several reasons. First, they may
not have sufficient capital to prudently retain all of the business that it can sell. For example, it

may only be able to offer a total of $100 million in coverage, but by reinsuring 75% of it, it can sell
four times as much.
The ceding company may seek surplus reinsurance simply to limit the losses it might incur from a
small number of large claims as a result of random fluctuations in experience. In a 9 line surplus
treaty the reinsurer would then accept up to $900,000 (9 lines). So if the insurance company
issues a policy for $100,000, they would keep all of the premiums and losses from that policy. If
they issue a $200,000 policy, they would give (cede) half of the premiums and losses to
the reinsurer (1 line each). The maximum automatic underwriting capacity of the cedant would be
$1,000,000 in this example. (Any policy larger than this would require facultative reinsurance.)

Non-proportional[edit]
Under non-proportional reinsurance the reinsurer only pays out if the total claims suffered by
the insurer in a given period exceed a stated amount, which is called the "retention" or "priority".
For instance the insurer may be prepared to accept a total loss up to $1 million, and purchases a
layer of reinsurance of $4 million in excess of this $1 million. If a loss of $3 million were then to
occur, the insurer would bear $1 million of the loss and would recover $2 million from its reinsurer.
In this example, the insured also retains any excess of loss over $5 million unless it has
purchased a further excess layer of reinsurance.
The main forms of non-proportional reinsurance are excess of loss and stop loss.
Excess of loss reinsurance can have three forms - "Per Risk XL" (Working XL), "Per
Occurrence or Per Event XL" (Catastrophe or Cat XL), and "Aggregate XL". In per risk, the
cedant's insurance policy limits are greater than the reinsurance retention. For example, an
insurance company might insure commercial property risks with policy limits up to $10 million,
and then buy per risk reinsurance of $5 million in excess of $5 million. In this case a loss of $6
million on that policy will result in the recovery of $1 million from the reinsurer. These contracts
usually contain event limits to prevent their misuse as a substitute for Catastrophe XLs.
In catastrophe excess of loss, the cedant's retention is usually a multiple of the underlying policy
limits, and the reinsurance contract usually contains a two risk warranty (i.e. they are designed to
protect the cedant against catastrophic events that involve more than one policy, usually very
many policies). For example, an insurance company issues homeowners' policies with limits of up
to $500,000 and then buys catastrophe reinsurance of $22,000,000 in excess of $3,000,000. In
that case, the insurance company would only recover from reinsurers in the event of multiple
policy losses in one event (e.g., hurricane, earthquake, flood).
Aggregate XL affords a frequency protection to the reinsured. For instance if the company
retains $1 million net any one vessel, $5 million annual aggregate limit in excess of $5m annual
aggregate deductible, the cover would equate to 5 total losses (or more partial losses) in excess
of 5 total losses (or more partial losses). Aggregate covers can also be linked to the cedant's
gross premium income during a 12-month period, with limit and deductible expressed as
percentages and amounts. Such covers are then known as "Stop Loss" contracts.

Risks attaching basis[edit]

A basis under which reinsurance is provided for claims arising from policies commencing during
the period to which the reinsurance relates. The insurer knows there is coverage during the whole
policy period even if claims are only discovered or made later on.
All claims from cedant underlying policies incepting during the period of the reinsurance contract
are covered even if they occur after the expiration date of the reinsurance contract. Any claims
from cedant underlying policies incepting outside the period of the reinsurance contract are not
covered even if they occur during the period of the reinsurance contract.

Losses occurring basis[edit]

A Reinsurance treaty under which all claims occurring during the period of the contract,
irrespective of when the underlying policies incepted, are covered. Any losses occurring after the
contract expiration date are not covered.
As opposed to claims-made or risks attaching contracts. Insurance coverage is provided for
losses occurring in the defined period. This is the usual basis of cover for short tail business.

Claims-made basis[edit]
A policy which covers all claims reported to an insurer within the policy period irrespective of
when they occurred.

Contracts[edit]
Most of the above examples concern reinsurance contracts that cover more than one policy
(treaty). Reinsurance can also be purchased on a per policy basis, in which case it is known
asfacultative reinsurance. Facultative reinsurance can be written on either a quota share or
excess of loss basis. Facultative reinsurance is commonly used for large or unusual risks that do
not fit within standard reinsurance treaties due to their exclusions. The term of a facultative
agreement coincides with the term of the policy. Facultative reinsurance is usually purchased by
the insurance underwriter who underwrote the original insurance policy, whereas treaty
reinsurance is typically purchased by a senior executive at the insurance company.
Reinsurance treaties can either be written on a "continuous" or "term" basis. A continuous
contract has no predetermined end date, but generally either party can give 90 days notice to
cancel or amend the treaty. A term agreement has a built-in expiration date. It is common for
insurers and reinsurers to have long term relationships that span many years.

Fronting[edit]
Sometimes insurance companies wish to offer insurance in jurisdictions where they are not
licensed: for example, an insurer may wish to offer an insurance programme to a multinational
company, to cover property and liability risks in many countries around the world. In such
situations, the insurance company may find a local insurance company which is authorised in the
relevant country, arrange for the local insurer to issue an insurance policy covering the risks in
that country, and enter into a reinsurance contract with the local insurer to transfer the risks. In
the event of a loss, the policyholder would claim against the local insurer under the local
insurance policy, the local insurer would pay the claim and would claim reimbursement under the
reinsurance contract. Such an arrangement is called "fronting". Fronting is also sometimes used

where an insurance buyer requires its insurers to have a certain financial strength rating and the
prospective insurer does not satisfy that requirement: the prospective insurer may be able to
persuade another insurer, with the requisite credit rating, to provide the coverage to the insurance
buyer, and to take out reinsurance in respect of the risk. An insurer which acts as a "fronting
insurer" receives a fronting fee for this service to cover administration and the potential default of
the reinsurer. The fronting insurer is taking a risk in such transactions, because it has an
obligation to pay its insurance claims even if the reinsurer becomes insolvent and fails to
reimburse the claims.

Markets[edit]
Many reinsurance placements are not placed with a single reinsurer but are shared between a
number of reinsurers. For example a $30,000,000 excess of $20,000,000 layer may be shared by
30 or more reinsurers. The reinsurer who sets the terms (premium and contract conditions) for
the reinsurance contract is called the lead reinsurer; the other companies subscribing to the
contract are called following reinsurers. Alternatively, one reinsurer can accept the whole of the
reinsurance and then retrocede it (pass it on in a further reinsurance arrangement) to other
companies
About half of all reinsurance is handled by reinsurance brokers who then place business with
reinsurance companies. The other half is with "direct writing" reinsurers who have their own sales
staff and deal with the ceding companies directly. In Europe reinsurers write both direct and
brokered accounts.
Using game-theoretic modeling, Professors Michael R. Powers (Temple University) and Martin
Shubik (Yale University) have argued that the number of active reinsurers in a given national
market should be approximately equal to the square-root of the number of primary insurers active
in the same market.[1] Econometric analysis has provided empirical support for the Powers-Shubik
rule.[2]
Ceding companies often choose their reinsurers with great care as they are exchanging
insurance risk for credit risk. Risk managers monitor reinsurers' financial ratings (S&P, A.M. Best,
etc.) and aggregated exposures regularly.

Reinsurers[edit]
Reinsurer

2012 Gross Written Premiums (GWP) (US millions)[3]

Munich Re

$37,251

Swiss Re

$31,723

Hannover Re

$18,208

Lloyd's of London

$15,785

Berkshire Hathaway / General Re

$15,059

SCOR

$12,576

Reinsurance Group of America

$8,233

China Reinsurance Group

$6,708

Korean Reinsurance Company

$5,113

PartnerRe

$4,712

Everest Re

$4,311

Transatlantic Re

$3,577

London Reinsurance Group

$3,319

General Insurance Corporation of India $625[4]

Major reinsurance brokers include:

Aon Corporation

Willis Re
Guy Carpenter
JLT Towers Re
Cooper Gay Swett & Crawford

Retrocession[edit]
Reinsurance companies often also purchase reinsurance, a practice known as retrocession.
They typically purchase this reinsurance from other reinsurance companies, but may also
retrocede to other insurance companies to spread the risk more widely. A company that accepts
such retrocession business is a "retrocessionaire". The reinsurance company that buys
reinsurance is the "retrocedant".
The flow of business and premium is as follows: client --> insurer --> reinsurer -->
retrocessionaire. Other terms used for each of these entities in this flow of business would be:
client --> cedant --> retrocedant --> retrocessionaire.
It is not unusual for a reinsurer to buy reinsurance protection from other reinsurers. For example,
a reinsurer that provides proportional, or pro rata reinsurance capacity to insurance companies
may wish to protect its own exposure to catastrophes by buying excess of loss protection.
Another situation would be that a reinsurer which provides excess of loss reinsurance protection
may wish to protect itself against an accumulation of losses in different branches of business
which may all become affected by the same catastrophe. Retrocession insurance is common in
areas prone to natural disasters like earthquakes and hurricanes where damage to property,
automobiles, boats, aircraft and loss of life are more likely to occur.
This process can sometimes continue until the original reinsurance company unknowingly gets
some of its own business (and therefore its own liabilities) back. This is known as a "spiral" and
was common in some specialty lines of business such as marine and aviation. Sophisticated
reinsurance companies are aware of this danger and through careful underwriting attempt to
avoid it.
In the 1980s, the London market was badly affected by the creation of reinsurance spirals. This
resulted in the same loss going around the market thereby artificially inflating market loss figures
of big claims (such as the Piper Alpha oil rig). The LMX spiral (as it was called) has been stopped
by excluding retrocessional business from reinsurance covers protecting direct insurance
accounts.
It is important to note that the original insurance company is obliged to pay due claims whether or
not the reinsurer reimburses the insurer. Many insurance companies have experienced difficulties
by purchasing reinsurance from companies that did not or could not pay their share of the loss.
(These unpaid claims are known as uncollectibles.) This is particularly important on long-tail lines
of business where the claims may arise many years after the premium is paid.