Speaking with Reinsurance News at the 67th Rendez-Vous de Septembre in Monte Carlo, QRG executives Nick Pomeroy and John Harris described how the London-based Lloyd’s specialist combines agility and deep market experience to deliver international insurance and reinsurance solutions, including infrastructure, capacity sourcing, and programme design for Coverholders and MGAs
He continued, “QRG is very agile, and our team brings a huge amount of experience.
“Collectively, we’ve spent decades in the market, and, along the way, we’ve built strong relationships that give us excellent market reach.
“We see ourselves as a niche player, connecting clients to different markets, and we pride ourselves on being entrepreneurial and open-minded.
“While we can handle the more traditional, ‘vanilla’ products, we also enjoy working with enterprises and NGOs to design new, innovative solutions.”
Pomeroy, Head of Reinsurance & Broking, stressed that QRG is not seeking to replicate the model of larger intermediaries, adding, “Importantly, we’re not trying to compete with the big brokers. We’re very conscious of the size of the pond we’re swimming in, and the size of the fish we are.
“Having come from the large broker environment, we know what that world looks like, but that’s not what we’re setting out to replicate.
“We’re not here to offer every service. Instead, we see a real opportunity with the many markets and cedents around the world who don’t want to work with the large broking houses.
“That’s where we can add real value: offering a focused, senior management team who can provide bespoke advice while still giving clients access to the market.”
For Harris, being smaller has an array of additional advantages.
“We’re a small entity, and our aim is to grow by finding the right client base, though, increasingly, clients are also finding us. Sometimes being ‘under the radar’ actually helps, giving us better access and flexibility,” he explained.
“On top of that, we’re also very interested in developing technological solutions for insurance, which is a growing part of our focus.”
Pomeroy also discussed how RVS often sets the tone for the January renewals, outlining what QRG expects in terms of market appetite and capacity going into 2026.
“If we focus on the property reinsurance market, the last couple of years have been relatively benign in terms of major catastrophe losses, which has helped soften rates through recent renewal periods,” he said.
“At the same time, there’s currently an excess of supply over demand, with additional capacity largely coming from reinsurers deploying retained earnings rather than new entrants.
“However, the market is facing some important dynamics. We’ve seen a rise in attritional losses, for example, from wildfires and severe convective storms, and these are no longer confined to traditional hot spot regions. That creates a broader challenge for reinsurers.
“What we haven’t yet seen in the current cycle is a truly severe event, but if that were to occur, the response would be swift, with pricing hardening almost overnight.
“Another factor is retrocession. The market relies heavily on collateralised funds, but when capital is trapped by losses, it can’t be easily redeployed. That creates pressure on retro capacity, which then feeds back into reinsurance pricing and ultimately to insurers.”
Pomeroy concluded, “So, if loss activity remains manageable, I’d expect the market to stay relatively soft and competitive, with buyers benefiting from stable or slightly improved terms.
“But the underlying fundamentals mean that a major event could quickly reverse that trend. Overall, discipline in pricing and terms has held up reasonably well, though there may be some downward pressure on attachment points.”
About the Author
