Christopher Munro reviews the news

This week we spoke to North American Associate Editor at The Insurer, Christopher Munro to get his take on the past week in insurance news in the US.

What has been the stand-out story for you in The Insurer this week - and why?

Travelers and WR Berkley, early reporters in the third quarter results season, both highlighted how pricing is now outpacing loss costs. Mounting losses have been a thorn in the insurance industry, and the price increases that have been imposed over the past 18 months to two years have sought to correct that.

The comments from the two firms’ respective CEOs that they feel they are on top of those loss costs, especially in light of the continued uncertainty around Covid-19, were noteworthy.

Which news this week do you think will have the most long-term impact on the insurance industry?

It’s not so much a single story, but the stream of capital coming into the market in support of start-ups will certainly have a long-term impact on the industry.

What’s particularly interesting is that these moves are not just taking place in one specific area of the market – it’s throughout the industry. There are new brokers, E&S carriers, MGAs, syndicates, insurers, reinsurers and more.

Sitting on the sidelines and watching what successes the various members of the Class of 2020 enjoy will certainly be interesting to watch over the long-term.

The polls are currently suggesting a narrow Biden victory, if that were to be the case, what impacts would that have for the industry?

Recent years have taught me not to trust polls! Obviously it’s hard to tell at the moment what impacts there will be, but there is an expectation that a Biden win at the upcoming presidential election would potentially be less favourable to the insurance industry due to a proposed increase in the corporate tax rate.

Who is your insurance personality of the week and why?

There are a couple of people I want to highlight here. Firstly, it’s great to see Kathleen Reardon has been appointed CEO of Hiscox Re & ILS. The former Hamilton Re CEO has secured another top job in the industry, and it’s great to see women taking prominent positions in the marketplace. Obviously there’s been a lot of change at Hiscox Re & ILS recently, but it’s a very interesting time in the industry, and being at the helm of a reinsurer heading into the 1 January renewals must be fascinating.

Secondly, Lloyd’s CEO John Neal expressed a lack of optimism that the various government-backed pandemic reinsurance proposals will get off the ground. Frankly, his comments were refreshing in their honesty.

If you could interview anyone from the world of insurance and they had to answer your question 100% truthfully, who would it be and what would you ask them?

Perhaps it’s a bit of a leftfield choice, but one person I’d be very interested in talking to at the moment is California’s Insurance Commissioner Ricardo Lara and how he plans to battle the threat posed by wildfire.

Having recently moved to California, waking up some mornings with the smell of burning vegetation in the air and thick smoke in the skies has been a strange experience.

This week, Lara vowed to take action against carriers that drop homeowners in wildfire-exposed parts of the state. But demanding insurers provide coverage to homeowners whose homes are at threat is not a long-term solution. I would ask him whether he truly thinks there is a solution to a problem that, with climate change, shows little sign of abating.