Your weekly re/insurance round-up, ending 6th of December 2024

This week, a new report from Swiss Re revealed that insured losses from natural catastrophes are expected to exceed $135bn in 2024, marking the fifth consecutive year that such losses have surpassed the $100bn threshold.

At the same time, WTW confirmed its intention to re-enter the treaty reinsurance broking market through a joint venture with private investment firm Bain Capital, while Aviva and Direct Line reached a preliminary agreement on a takeover deal.

In other developments, the UK Government announced that the Personal Injury Discount Rate will increase to 0.5%, effective from 11 January 2025, and the IAIS adopted the global Insurance Capital Standard for insurance supervision.

Meanwhile, Aon Client Treaty expanded its line size to a record 28.5% for 2025, and Florida Citizens saw its policy count drop below a million as the state market continues to stabilise.

Elsewhere, analysts at JP Morgan suggested that the reinsurance market is likely to stabilize next year, with pricing expected to return to approximately 2023 levels.

Turning to the key people moves, Aon’s Reinsurance Solutions division hired Robert O’Connell as Global Cyber Strategy and Growth Leader, Executive Managing Director, and James Flude was appointed CEO of Lancashire Insurance U.S.

Concert also promoted Scott Stosek to Director of Finance & CFO of Harmony Re, while James Irvine joined Oak Re as CUO.

We’ll continue to update you with more coverage of the major developments from this week, while also keeping up with the regular news coming out of the re/insurance industry.

We hope all our readers stay safe and well this weekend!