ALTERNATIVE CAPITAL AND ITS IMPACT ON INSURANCE AND REINSURANCE MARKETS MARCH 2015 Robert P. Hartwig, Ph.D., CPCU President and Economist (212) 346-5520
[email protected] James Lynch, FCAS, MAAA Chief Actuary and Director of Information Services (212) 346-5533
[email protected] Insurance Information Institute 110 William Street New York, NY 10038 212.346.5500 EXECUTIVE SUMMARY The amount of capital used to support reinsurance1 worldwide has been growing quickly. Most of the growth continues to come from reinsurer and insurer profits, but significant new capital is pouring in from sources that barely existed 15 to 20 years ago. While these alternative capital arrangements have little impact on the typical policyholder, they have significantly affected the way reinsurance is being written worldwide. Alternative reinsurance capital is characterized by two twists on the traditional reinsurance arrangement. First, a new breed of investor is seeking out the reinsurance market—hedge funds, sovereign wealth funds, pensions and mutual funds. Second, the deals are structured differently. The new arrangements— catastrophe bonds, collateralized reinsurance and reinsurance sidecars—tend to isolate the investment from the rest of the capital supporting a reinsurer, thereby allowing the capital to enter and exit the market quickly. Alternative capital constituted 12 percent of the global reinsurance market at third- quarter 2014, more than double its market share at the end of 2010 (Figure 1).2 Aon Benfield Analytics estimates that alternative capital has tripled since 2008, growing considerably faster than traditional reinsurance capital. Growth in alternative capital is 15 percent of the overall growth of reinsurer capital in the same time period.3 (Figure 2) According to Aon, alternative capital had grown almost 25 percent from the end of 2013, and as of the third quarter 2014 stood at $61.9 billion.