Jim Williamson, President and Chief Executive Officer at Bermudian insurer an reinsurer, Everest, characterised the property catastrophe reinsurance market as a “still very favourable environment,” describing it as well-priced and a risk the company is looking to take.
“If you didn’t know that prices had corrected up by 50% at 1/1 2023, and you just looked at the rate level that’s currently persisting in the market, and compared it to prior historical rate levels, let’s say in the 20 teens, you would say this is a great cat market, and people should be writing it. And I think that’s true,” said Williamson.
He explained that this is why there is competition in the market, as other participants recognise that pricing is attractive and want to write business.
“Prices will likely come down,” Williamson added. “There are various estimates, let’s say a 10% expectation of price decreases at 1/1, I still think that means that property cat is well priced. So, I think it’s still a risk that we will be looking to take now.”
He continued, “When the market moves down 10%, that’s going to mean there’s going to be some clients where we view the pricing and we don’t think it’s adequate, and we’ll adjust accordingly.”
Williamson also emphasised that whether 2025 was a light year in terms of cat activity, nothing Everest is going to do at the upcoming January 2026 renewals, or at any future renewals, will be influenced by that.
“First of all, it didn’t feel that light. We started with a major wildfire, we’ve got a category five hurricane churning in the Caribbean right now. We don’t react to one good year and say, we’re going to do one thing or the other based on that. We’re making long term bets based on where we see the pricing trajectory of the business, and you will not see us be afraid when the time comes, if it comes, to begin pulling back, taking chips off the table if we’re not getting paid appropriately for the risks that we’re being asked to bear,” said Williamson.
Everest reported a strong third quarter for its reinsurance business, with robust premium growth in Property Catastrophe XOL and in Property Non-Catastrophe XOL, partially offset by decrease in Casualty Pro-Rata and Casualty XOL.
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