Among those who used Rendez-Vous to launch research reports on the reinsurance industry were rating agencies Moody's Investors Service and Standard & Poor's.

Moody's
Moody's assigned the Eu …

Among those who used Rendez-Vous to launch research reports on the reinsurance industry were rating agencies Moody's Investors Service and Standard & Poor's.

Moody's
Moody's assigned the European industry a long-term negative business rating outlook due to lower investment returns and a "decline in demand for reinsurance".

Senior vice president Lynn Exton said: "Although rate levels have improved in 2002 and are expected to continue doing so in 2003 and perhaps 2004, Moody's holds a negative near-term business outlook for European reinsurers.

"This is because the rate improvements are more than offset by the adverse impact of lower investment returns, the prospect for higher World Trade Centre provisions, as well as the need to address reserve deficiencies and find the capital to support growth."

Moody's did note, however, that European insurers are world leaders and that opportunities still exist within the sector.

It said it expects price increases to continue at least until January 2003 due to the increased perception of risk post-WTC increasing demand for insurance and reinsurance.

Standard & Poor's
In Standard & Poor's report Global reinsurance highlights, the rating agency noted that last year witnessed the industry's worst underwriting results since it began tracking it.

It said that repercussions from WTC are broad "as management teams reshuffle, business divisions are placed into run-off, and a new crop of reinsurers struggles to execute their business plans".

But the rating agency also said the industry has demonstrated "impressive resilience" in the face of the massive losses.

Stress from the WTC losses had led it to downgrade 15 reinsurers and it has assigned a negative outlook to the industry.

It attributed this partly to the lack of market interest in reinsurers, saying this reflects an investor base that has little appetite for increasing exposure to this segment.

S&P added that it is confident the hard market will continue through this renewal season.

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