Bermuda's (Re)Insurance Market In 2012

As November 2012 drew to a close, catastrophe modelling firms were releasing their latest insured loss estimates from Hurricane Sandy¹, punctuating with an exclamation mark what has been a year of victories and challenges for the Bermuda market².

Cat modeller AIR Worldwide revised upward its loss estimate for Sandy to $16 – 22 billion, while Eqecat remained at $10 – 20 billion and RMS looked set to move north to the $20 – 25 billion range³. Based on the insured loss estimate development of other major US storms such as Katrina and Andrew, further upward momentum in these estimates is likely in the coming weeks.

Sandy was the first major cat event in what has been a tranquil year for the worldwide catastrophe reinsurance marketplace; a marked, and welcome, contrast to 2011, which was a record year for cats⁴. While it is still too early to tell how much of this loss will be borne by the traditional Bermuda cat re market, there is much speculation on the impact the