The Breadth and Scope of the Global Reinsurance Market and the 

Critical Role Such Market Plays in Supporting Insurance in the 

United States 

FEDERAL INSURANCE OFFICE, U.S. DEPARTMENT OF THE TREASURY

Completed pursuant to Title V of the Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act

DECEMBER 2014 

The Breadth And Scope Of The Global Reinsurance Market And 

The Critical Role Such Market Plays In Supporting Insurance In The United States

FEDERAL INSURANCE OFFICE, U.S. DEPARTMENT OF THE TREASURY

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Table of Contents

I. INTRODUCTION .................................................................................................................. 1

II. BRIEF HISTORY OF REINSURANCE................................................................................ 3

III. DEFINITION AND FORMS OF REINSURANCE............................................................ 7

A. Reinsurance Defined ........................................................................................................ 7

B. Forms of Reinsurance....................................................................................................... 8

1. Treaty Reinsurance ....................................................................................................... 8

2. Facultative Reinsurance.............................................................................................. 10

IV. THE PURPOSE AND IMPORTANCE OF REINSURANCE ......................................... 11

A. Uses of Reinsurance ....................................................................................................... 11

1. Stabilizing Underwriting Results................................................................................ 11

2. Increasing Underwriting Capacity.............................................................................. 11

3. Supporting Entry Into and Exit from Insurance Markets........................................... 12

4. Promoting Capital Allocation among Affiliates......................................................... 13

5. Achieving Risk Concentration or Diversification ...................................................... 13

B. The Importance of Reinsurance ..................................................................................... 14

V. REGULATION OF REINSURANCE IN THE UNITED STATES .................................... 18

A. Direct Regulation ........................................................................................................... 19

B. Indirect Regulation......................................................................................................... 19

C. Federal Involvement in Reinsurance and Industry Oversight........................................ 20

D. Credit for Reinsurance Collateral Reform ..................................................................... 23

VI. GLOBAL REINSURANCE MARKETS .......................................................................... 26

A. The U.S. Insurance Sector as Purchasers of Reinsurance .............................................. 26

B. Global Suppliers of Reinsurance.................................................................................... 28

1. Reinsurance Industry Data.......................................................................................... 28

2. United States Reinsurance Sector............................................................................... 34

3. Non-U.S. Reinsurance Sector..................................................................................... 36

C. Increasing Capital Markets Convergence With Reinsurance......................................... 38

1. Types of Alternative Reinsurance .............................................................................. 39

2. Development of the Alternative Reinsurance Market ................................................ 40

VII. CONCLUSION.................................................................................................................. 43
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Glossary

A/H ........... Accident & Health Insurance

BCR ........... Basic Capital Requirement

CEA ........... California Earthquake Authority

ComFrame ........... Common Framework for the Supervision of IAIGs

Council ........... Financial Stability Oversight Council

Dodd-Frank Act ........... Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act

FAA ........... Federal Aviation Administration

FCIC ........... Federal Crop Insurance Corporation

FEMA ........... Federal Emergency Management Agency

FHCF ........... Florida Hurricane Catastrophe Fund

FIO ........... Federal Insurance Office

FIO 2014 Annual Report ........... U.S. Department of the Treasury, Federal Insurance Office Annual 

Report on the Insurance Industry (2014)

FRN ........... Federal Register Notice of June 27, 2012

FSB ........... Financial Stability Board

G-SII ........... Global Systemically Important Insurer

GWP ........... Gross Written Premiums

HLA ........... Higher Loss Absorbency

IAIG ........... Internationally Active Insurance Group

IAIS ........... International Association of Insurance Supervisors

ILS ........... Insurance-Linked Securities

ILW ........... Industry Loss Warranty

LAE ........... Loss Adjustment Expenses

L/H ........... Life & Health Insurance

Model Law ........... NAIC Credit for Reinsurance Model Law and Regulation

Modernization Report ........... Department of the Treasury, How to Modernize and Improve the 

System of Insurance Regulation in the United States (December 2013)

NAIC ........... National Association of Insurance Commissioners

NFIP ........... National Flood Insurance Program

NRRA ........... Nonadmitted and Reinsurance Reform Act of 2010

NWP ........... Net Written Premiums

OPIC ........... Overseas Private Investment Corporation

P/C ........... Property & Casualty Insurance

PHS ........... Policyholders’ Surplus

Project ........... EU-U.S. Insurance Project

SPV ........... Special Purpose Vehicle

Treasury ........... U.S. Department of the Treasury

TRIA ........... Terrorism Risk Insurance Act of 2002, as amended

TRIP ........... Terrorism Risk Insurance Program

USTR ........... United States Trade Representative
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I. INTRODUCTION 

By premium volume, the United States is the largest single-country insurance market in the 

world. Insurers operating in the United States rely on reinsurers, both foreign and domestic, to 

support the issuance of new policies, to minimize fluctuations in loss experience, and to limit and 

diversify individual and portfolio risks, particularly in the case of catastrophes and natural 

disasters. 

Reinsurance is a contract of indemnity between commercial parties – an insurer (i.e., the 

“cedent” or “ceding insurer”) and one or more “assuming insurers” (i.e., reinsurers) – by which, 

in exchange for a premium, a specified portion of the risks under one or more insurance policies 

written by the cedent are transferred (“ceded”) to the reinsurers. Reinsurance serves a variety of 

functions, and can be tailored to the particular needs of a given cedent. Reinsurance is 

commonly purchased to limit an insurer’s loss experience resulting from insured risk exposures, 

to increase an insurer’s underwriting capacity, to promote more efficient allocation of an 

insurer’s capital, or to facilitate an insurer’s entry to or exit from a particular line of business or 

market segment. Reinsurance serves an important function as protection for cedents against the 

accumulation of losses from a natural disaster or other catastrophe. “The reinsurance of peak 

risks originally assumed by primary insurers – i.e., risks with low probabilities of occurrence, but 

high severities – is the core business of reinsurers.”1

The global reinsurance market includes organizations and companies that have operated for a 

century or more, as well as relatively new companies and alternative forms of risk transfer. The 

U.S. reinsurance sector continues to be an important source of capacity for domestic insurers 

seeking reinsurance. Non-U.S. reinsurers also play a key role, as U.S. insurers purchase a 

substantial amount of reinsurance protection from companies domiciled outside of the United 

States, or which are part of groups headquartered outside of the United States, including in 

Europe, the Asia-Pacific region, Bermuda, and other jurisdictions. Additionally, in recent years,

insurers, reinsurers, and various capital market participants have developed a range of insurancelinked securities and special purpose vehicles, which have a growing role in the global risk 

transfer market.

The manner in which reinsurance is regulated in the United States depends upon whether or not 

the reinsurer is licensed in a U.S. state. Licensed reinsurers are subject to the same state-based 

regulation as other licensed insurers. Unlicensed reinsurers (typically non-U.S. companies) 

assuming risks from U.S. ceding insurers are indirectly regulated by state laws, including those 

that compel licensed insurers to obtain qualifying collateral from unlicensed reinsurers in order 

for the licensed insurers to take financial statement credit for liabilities ceded to such unlicensed 

reinsurers. Due to the global diversification of the industry, many non-U.S. reinsurers assuming 

risk from U.S. insurers are affected by such requirements. 

Title V of the Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act (Dodd-Frank Act),2

established the Federal Insurance Office (FIO) in the U.S. Department of the Treasury 

(Treasury). Among other provisions, the Dodd-Frank Act authorizes FIO to monitor all aspects 

of the insurance industry,3 which includes the reinsurance industry, and to coordinate federal 

 1 International Association of Insurance Supervisors, Reinsurance and Financial Stability, 19 (July 19, 2012). 2 Dodd-Frank Act §§ 501-502, 31 U.S.C. § 313 (2010). 3 See, e.g., 31 U.S. § 313(c)(1)(A).
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efforts and develop federal policy on prudential aspects of international insurance matters, 

including matters relating to reinsurance.

This report has been prepared pursuant to the requirement under the Dodd-Frank Act for FIO to 

issue a report “describing the breadth and scope of the global reinsurance market and the critical 

role such market plays in supporting insurance in the United States” (Report).4

 In support of this 

Report, on June 27, 2012, Treasury published a notice in the Federal Register (FRN) seeking 

comments from interested parties. Thirty written comments from domestic and international 

parties were received, including from insurers, reinsurers, industry trade associations, and 

consumer advocates.5 In addition, FIO consulted with a number of reinsurers, industry 

representatives, and other organizations throughout 2013 and 2014.

This Report describes the important role of the global reinsurance market in supporting the 

insurance industry in the United States. It is not the purpose of this Report to analyze the extent 

to which reinsurance or any particular reinsurer could be systemically important. Global 

reinsurance providers play a vital role supporting insurance in the United States, but by any 

metric, reinsurance constitutes only a comparatively minor component of the insurance industry. 

For example, global reinsurance premiums are only a small fraction of direct insurance 

premiums (less than 5 percent); and reinsurer assets are a small fraction of overall insurance 

industry assets.6 Many global reinsurers and other capital market industry participants operate in 

the reinsurance market, demonstrating a high degree of substitutability and mobility of risk 

transfer capital. 

 4 31 U.S.C. § 313(o)(1).

5 All comments available at http://www.treasury.gov/initiatives/fio/reports-and-notices/Pages/closed.aspx. 6 The combined assets of the ten largest reinsurers – which together constitute roughly 90% of the global life and 

health reinsurance market and 50% of the non-life reinsurance market – are smaller than the assets of the top 

insurer, and by market capitalization the whole reinsurance sector equals the two top primary insurers. 

International Association of Insurance Supervisors, Reinsurance and Financial Stability (July 19, 2012).
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II. BRIEF HISTORY OF REINSURANCE 

Reinsurance has been practiced as a commercial endeavor for centuries.7 Published references to 

reinsurance are found in English and European laws from the 15th, 16th, and 17th centuries.

8

 

For example, a translation from the Guidon de la Mer (Normandy, 1671) states: 

But if an underwriter repent of what he has done; if he be afraid to encounter the 

risk he has engaged to run, or find that he has incautiously bound himself to a 

greater amount than he may be able to discharge, he may shift it, or part of it, 

from himself to other insurers by causing a re-insurance to be made on the same 

risk, upon the best terms he can, and the new insurers will be responsible to him 

in case of loss, to the amount of the re-insurance.9

One author surmised that “[r]einsurance almost certainly grew out of the practice of offering risk 

to more than one insurer when the first insurer could not accept it all.”10

Prior to the American Revolutionary War, reinsurance for the fledgling American insurance 

industry was primarily provided through Lloyd’s—an insurance market in London with roots 

dating to 1688 (Box 1). Access to Lloyd’s was not available to the U.S. market, however, during 

the American Revolutionary War and in the very early years of the nation.11 By the first quarter 

of the 19th century, some reinsurance business was being conducted by U.S. companies,12 but it 

appears that most reinsurance was at that time placed overseas.13 Reinsurance was wellestablished as an industry in the United States by the early 20th century.14 

Concurrently, the modern global reinsurance industry developed during the 18th and 19th 

centuries. Cologne Re was founded in Germany as the first professional reinsurance company in 

1842.15 In the following decades, additional reinsurers were established throughout Europe, 

including Swiss Re in 1863 and Munich Re in 1880. Some of these companies continue to 

operate globally to this day, including as reinsurers of U.S. insurers.

 7 Henry T. Kramer, The Nature of Reinsurance, in Reinsurance (Robert W. Strain, ed. 1980), 8. David M. Holland, 

A Brief History of Reinsurance, Reinsurance News (Society of Actuaries), Issue 65, 19 (February 2009). 8 David M. Holland, A Brief History of Reinsurance, Reinsurance News (Society of Actuaries), Issue 65, 10-14

(February 2009). 9 Id. (citing Samuel Marshall, A Treatise on the Law of Insurance in Four Books, Second American from the second 

London edition, U. S. cases collected by J. W. Condy, Vol. I & II (Philadelphia: William P. Farrand and Co., 

1810), p. 18)). 10 Henry T. Kramer, The Nature of Reinsurance, in Reinsurance (Robert W. Strain, ed. 1980), 8 (referencing the 

market at Lloyd’s of London). 11 Id. at 15.

12 See, e.g., Mutual Safety Ins. Co. v. Hone, 2 N.Y. 235 (1849).

13 David M. Holland, A Brief History of Reinsurance, Reinsurance News (Society of Actuaries), Issue 65, 22-23 

(February 2009). 14 Id. (noting that ten new U.S. reinsurers were formed between 1910 and 1920). 15 Id. at 19.
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Box 1: Lloyd’s of London

The market now known as Lloyd’s of London began conducting business from Edward Lloyd’s

coffee house in 1688. It is among the world’s oldest suppliers of reinsurance, and has had a 

longstanding role as a supplier of reinsurance to U.S. insurers. Lloyd’s has a structure unique in 

the insurance industry: it is organized as a marketplace where underwriting “members” (the riskbearing capital suppliers), now primarily consisting of corporations and insurance groups, 

including U.S.-based insurers, join together and provide capital to “syndicates” that underwrite 

risk. Presently, 91 syndicates operate within Lloyd’s and underwrite a wide variety of insurance 

and reinsurance lines. Syndicates are essentially annual joint ventures; members have the right, 

but not the obligation, to participate the following year. Managing agents, engaged by members 

to operate one or more syndicates, provide management, support staff, and the business 

infrastructure to individual syndicates. Business at Lloyd’s must be placed through an accredited 

Lloyd’s broker. Oversight of the market is conducted by the Corporation of Lloyd’s, which sets 

capital standards, reviews and analyzes the activities of syndicates, and provides various other 

monitoring functions.16

During the first half of the 20th century, in large part due to the world wars, new reinsurers 

began to emerge in the United States as well as in countries (e.g., Switzerland) which 

experienced fewer commercial disruptions during the wars.17 On the eve of World War II, to 

demonstrate its ability to reliably service U.S. business, Lloyd’s set up an American trust fund to 

receive all dollar-denominated premiums and from which claims could be satisfied.18 That fund 

evolved into the “Lloyd’s American Trust Fund” and related funds established to secure the 

liabilities of its underwriting syndicates.19

In the early post-war years, state insurance regulators began to consider whether and how to 

develop uniform accounting treatment for reinsurance business ceded by U.S. insurers. The 

subject was still under discussion over 30 years later when, in 1982, the Illinois Department of 

Insurance submitted a report to the National Association of Insurance Commissioners (NAIC) 

proposing development of a model law to “create consistent financial standards for assuming 

reinsurers from state to state, accounting for reinsurance transactions and reserve credits ... and 

financial reporting and disclosure of certain reinsurance transactions.”20 In June of 1984, the 

NAIC adopted its Credit for Reinsurance Model Law and Regulation (the Model Law), which 

eventually formed the basis for the laws in all states requiring that non-U.S. reinsurers provide 

100 percent collateralization of reinsurance liabilities to U.S. cedents in order for the cedents to 

receive regulatory “credit” for the reinsurance. The NAIC recently adopted amendments to the 

 16 See generally Comment in response to the FRN on behalf of Lloyd’s, 1, 3 (August 27, 2012); About Us: The 

Lloyds’ Market, available at http://www.lloyds.com/lloyds/about-us/what-is-lloyds/the-lloyds-market. 17 David M. Holland, A Brief History of Reinsurance, Reinsurance News (Society of Actuaries), Issue 65, 23 

(February 2009). 18 History of Mendes & Mount LLP (noting that as counsel to Lloyd’s, “the Firm helped set up a fund of cash 

reserves to be used in case of a crippling financial disaster in England as the result of war”), available at

http://www.mendes.com/firm/.

19 See generally Lloyd’s United States Trust Deeds, available at http://www.lloyds.com/the-market/operating-atlloyds/regulation/lloyds-trust-deeds/united-states-trust-deeds. 20 National Association of Insurance Commissioners, U.S. Reinsurance Collateral White Paper, 20 (March 5, 2006).
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Model Law, which, if enacted as state law, would permit the state insurance regulator to grant 

full credit for reinsurance with reduced collateral under some circumstances.21

During the latter part of the 20th century, few new U.S.-based reinsurers were established despite 

the economic growth during the period. Bermuda, however, emerged as an international 

reinsurance center during this period.22 Over the past two decades, the formation of Bermudadomiciled reinsurance companies has occurred in waves corresponding to cyclical pricing 

patterns that followed the depletion of worldwide reinsurance capital in the property & casualty 

(P/C) sector due to extraordinarily large loss events.23 These include the so-called class of 1992-

1993 (following Hurricane Andrew); class of 2001-2002 (following the terrorist attacks of 

September 11, 2001); and the class of 2005-2006 (following Hurricanes Katrina, Rita, and 

Wilma).24 New “classes” of traditional reinsurers did not emerge following record catastrophe 

losses in 2011 and Superstorm Sandy in 2012. Bermuda is now also becoming prominent in the 

alternative risk transfer market, discussed below.

Today, the reinsurance industry supporting the U.S. direct insurance market is global in scope, 

and primarily consists of approximately 50 large, professional reinsurers and reinsurance groups, 

as well as many smaller reinsurers.25 According to analysis by the Reinsurance Association of 

America, in 2013 approximately $46 billion in total (P/C) reinsurance premiums were ceded by 

U.S.-based insurers to unaffiliated reinsurers; of this amount, approximately $28.4 billion of

premiums were ceded to non-U.S. reinsurers and approximately $17.6 billion of premiums were 

ceded to U.S. professional reinsurers.26 As addressed below, if the domiciles of ultimate parent 

companies are taken into account, the figures show that an even greater portion of U.S. 

reinsurance premiums are ceded to non-U.S. reinsurance groups.

Related market participants, including brokers and ancillary service providers, also contribute to 

the availability and affordability of reinsurance. In addition, new reinsurers and other vehicles to 

distribute insurance risks world-wide continue to be formed. Notably, capital from alternative 

sources (e.g., pension funds) has emerged to support new sources of risk transfer for insurance 

companies. In the first quarter of 2014, for example, sponsors issued some $1.6 billion of 

insurance-linked securities—a single quarter record. The majority of this “alternative capital” 

 21 See section V.D of this Report.

22 Insurance Act 1978 (as amended), Consolidated Laws of Bermuda. 23 “After large catastrophes, which tend to reduce global capacity and lead to temporary rate increases in certain 

lines of business, the [reinsurance] market has traditionally seen an inflow of start-up companies. ... On balance, 

these dynamics kept the non-life reinsurance market comparatively competitive.” International Association of 

Insurance Supervisors, Reinsurance and Financial Stability, 16 (July 19, 2012). “Reinsurance markets are 

inherently cyclical.” Standard & Poor’s Ratings Services, Global Reinsurance Highlights 2014, 21 (2014). 24 J. David Cummins, The Bermuda Insurance Market: An Economic Analysis, 11 (May 6, 2008). In each instance, 

roughly eight to eleven new reinsurers were established in Bermuda. 25 Standard & Poor’s tracks 40 “Global Reinsurers.” See Standard & Poor’s Ratings Services, Global Reinsurance 

Highlights 2014: Innovation and Adaption are Key to Relevance (2014). A.M. Best regularly addresses the “Top 

50 Global Reinsurance Groups.” See A.M. Best, Global Reinsurance – Segment Review: The Capital Challenge -

How Relevant is the Underwriting Cycle (September 2014). 26 Reinsurance Association of America, Offshore Reinsurance in the U.S. Market: 2013 Data, 4, 13 (2014). The 

data are approximate, based on analysis of U.S. insurer annual reports, and disregard reinsurance between 

affiliated companies. 
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supports catastrophe bonds (“cat bonds”), a mechanism by which insurers securitize catastrophe 

risk.

27

Capital in the reinsurance sector has generally been increasing year-over-year for most of the 

past decade. Aon Benfield reports that global reinsurance capital amounts to $570 billion as of 

mid-2014 (Figure 1).28 Of this amount, $511 billion is classified as traditional capital and 

$59 billion as alternative capital. 

Figure 1: Global Reinsurer Capital

Source: Aon Benfield, The Aon Benfield Aggregate – Results for the Six Months Ended June 30, 2014

 27 See section VI.C of this Report. 28 The dips in 2008 and 2011 correspond to Hurricanes Ike and Irene, respectively, and reflect the cyclical nature 

which has characterized the global reinsurance market. See Part VI of this Report.
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III. DEFINITION AND FORMS OF REINSURANCE 

A. Reinsurance Defined

Reinsurance is often described as “insurance of insurance companies.”29 It is a commercial 

agreement whereby one company (the reinsurer) indemnifies another (the cedent) for insurance 

losses under policies of insurance issued by the cedent. In a manner broadly analogous to how a 

policyholder is protected from loss by transferring risk to an insurer, under a reinsurance contract 

the cedent is protected from its own exposure to loss by transfer of the specified insurance risk to 

a reinsurer.

“Indemnity” is a fundamental characteristic of traditional reinsurance. In the context of 

reinsurance an indemnity contract is one in which a party (the reinsurer) only becomes obligated 

to reimburse (indemnify) the other after that party (the cedent) has itself incurred and paid a loss 

which is both covered by its own insurance policy or policies and within the scope of the 

reinsurance contract between the two parties.30 

Essential elements of the reinsurance relationship therefore include: (1) a contract between at 

least two insurance companies, i.e., the cedent and the reinsurer(s); (2) one or more underlying 

insurance contracts, i.e., the policy or policies issued by the cedent to its own policyholders; and 

(3) a transfer of some insurance risk from the cedent to the reinsurer(s) pursuant to the contract 

of reinsurance.31 

A reinsurance contract is formed only between a cedent and one or more reinsurers, whereas the 

underlying insurance policies are contracts between the cedent and its policyholders. The 

underlying policyholders are not parties to the reinsurance contract and generally do not have 

rights or obligations under it. Similarly, the reinsurer is not party to the underlying insurance 

policies, and does not have rights or obligations thereunder. In its role as direct insurer, the 

cedent has and maintains the obligation to adjust and, where appropriate, to pay the claims of its 

policyholders. Reinsurance does not alter those obligations or shift them to others, because 

privity of contract does not exist between the reinsurer and the cedent’s policyholders.

32 

 29 Reinsurance Association of America, Fundamentals of P/C Reinsurance, available at

http://www.reinsurance.org/Fundamentals. 30 Glossary, in Reinsurance Contract Wording (Robert Strain, ed. 1992), 755. This differs from some direct (or 

“primary”) insurance policies, which are more commonly contracts of “liability” rather than of indemnity. See 

generally Skandia America Reins. Corp. v. Schenk, 441 F. Supp. 715, 724 (S.D.N.Y. 1977). Exceptions to this 

general practice include (1) certain instances, for example in the case of a catastrophe, in which a reinsurer might 

advance a payment to an insurer with the understanding that the insurer’s payment to policyholders is inevitable; 

and (2) in case of insolvency of an insurer, in which state regulators require that the obligations of the reinsurer to 

the estate of the insolvent insurer is not diminished because of the inability of the insurer to pay its direct 

obligation to policyholders in whole or in part. To address the latter situation, state insurance regulations require 

an “insolvency clause” as a standard term in reinsurance contracts. In addition, some reinsurance contracts and 

alternative risk transfer instruments incorporate “parametric” or industry loss triggers, calling for payment based 

upon the occurrence of a specified industry loss amount or an agreed index. 31 Comment in response to the FRN on behalf of Reinsurance Association of America, 2 (August 27, 2012). 32 Morris & Co. v. Skandinavia Ins. Co., 279 U.S. 405, 408 (1929); Citizens Cas. Co. v. Am. Glass. Co., 166 F.2d 

91, 95 (7th Cir. 1948).
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Accordingly, an insurer must “fulfill the terms of its policy whether or not it has reinsurance or 

whether or not the reinsurer is rightly or wrongly refusing to perform.”33

Reinsurers themselves may also buy reinsurance protection (e.g., to address loss exposure from 

reinsurance contracts), called “retrocessions.” The ceding reinsurer, or “retrocedent,” 

redistributes some of the reinsurance risk it has assumed (from its cedents) through contracts 

with one or more other reinsurers, or “retrocessionaires.” A reinsurer may also pool risks from 

several different affiliates and purchase a retrocession program that covers such risks placed by 

the reinsurance group on a more efficient basis.

34 

B. Forms of Reinsurance

Reinsurance is available for numerous lines of insurance business, both life and non-life, and the 

parties to a reinsurance contract have considerable discretion over the form and substance of an 

agreement, subject to certain regulatory restrictions imposed on the cedent. With some variation, 

however, reinsurance agreements generally take one of two basic forms, either “treaty” or 

“facultative” agreements. These two forms of reinsurance contracts are described below. 

1. Treaty Reinsurance

A reinsurance treaty is a standing reinsurance agreement; in exchange for an agreed premium, 

the treaty covers a class of insurance risks specified in the contract. Typically the “cession” of 

the reinsured business by the cedent and the assumption of that business by the reinsurer are 

obligatory pursuant to treaty terms. That is, under treaty reinsurance premium and losses 

associated with the covered risks are automatically covered by the agreement to be transferred to 

one or more reinsurers—the reinsurer does not analyze the reinsured business on a policy-bypolicy basis before accepting the risk cession.

35 As compared to facultative reinsurance, 

addressed below, treaty reinsurance is less labor-intensive to place and administer, and is the 

more common form used.

Treaty reinsurance highlights the close business relationship and high degree of trust that 

customarily has existed between cedents and reinsurers. Reinsurers must “follow the fortunes” 

of the cedent – which means reinsurers are to a large degree bound by the fortuities of the 

underlying insurance business – even when reinsurers do not have an advance opportunity to 

evaluate individual risks underwritten by the insurer. For that reason, reinsurers must rely on the 

cedent to make sound underwriting and claims-management decisions which, in turn, benefit 

cedent and reinsurer alike. In this sense, cedents and treaty reinsurers have traditionally operated 

with mutual interests and objectives and, historically, the reinsurance relationship has been 

considered one of “utmost good faith.”36 

 33 David M. Raim and Joy L. Langford, Understanding Reinsurance, in New Appleman on Insurance Law Practice 

Guide, § 40.01 (2007). 34 Comment in response to the FRN on behalf of Association of Bermuda Insurers and Reinsurers, 13 (August 27, 

2012). Reinsurers generally keep proportionately more risk “net” as compared to primary insurers. According to 

the IAIS, retrocessional premiums amounted to $25 billion worldwide in 2012. International Association of 

Insurance Supervisors, Reinsurance and Financial Stability, 9 (July 19, 2012). 35 The reinsurer typically has rights, however, to review and audit the cedent’s portfolio of insurance policies subject 

to the treaty in order to satisfy itself that the ceded business is of the type which the reinsurer agreed to cover. 36 Henry T. Kramer, “The Nature of Reinsurance,” in Reinsurance (Robert W. Strain, ed. 1980), 9-11. “Utmost 

good faith,” while not generally regarded in law as rising to the level of a fiduciary relationship, characterizes a 

relationship in which “the maxim of caveat emptor has no application to either party.” Id. at 9.
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Reinsurance treaties are typically classified as either “pro rata” or “excess of loss” contracts. 

The decision whether to purchase a pro rata or an excess of loss reinsurance treaty depends on 

the cedent’s objectives. In practice, both types of treaty reinsurance agreements are often 

purchased in combination to form an insurer’s reinsurance program. For example, an insurer 

may purchase pro rata treaties and per risk excess of loss treaties in multiple layers, the benefits 

of which may reduce the risks exposed to its catastrophe per event treaties (described below). 

Such customization of different types of reinsurance across various lines of business allows an 

insurer to address its specific risk management concerns. 

a. Pro Rata Reinsurance 

For risks subject to a pro rata treaty, the insurer and reinsurer share premiums and exposures to 

losses in an agreed proportion. Pro rata reinsurance has the advantage of simplicity in design 

and administration, but may come at a relatively high cost to the cedent in terms of underwriting 

income and total return (as compared to excess of loss reinsurance). This form of reinsurance is 

particularly suited to addressing a cedent’s need to ensure it has sufficient surplus for the 

business that it wishes to write, and is useful when a cedent is entering or exiting lines of 

business.37

Pro rata reinsurance treaties may be further classified as either “quota share” or “surplus share.” 

Under a quota share treaty (commonly referred to as “coinsurance” in the life insurance context), 

the cedent and reinsurer share a predetermined percentage of both the premium charged for the 

underlying insurance policies and the exposure thereunder to first-dollar losses. For example, in 

a 25 percent quota share treaty, the reinsurer would receive 25 percent of the premiums and be 

liable to the insurer for 25 percent of the losses paid by the insurer as well as, generally, the same 

percentage of the insurer’s loss adjustment expenses (LAE). In the event of loss, the insurer 

remains liable to its policyholders, but the insurer (as cedent) would be indemnified by the 

reinsurer for 25 percent of the amount of the covered loss and LAE paid under any reinsured 

policy. A surplus share treaty is similar to a quota share, but the cedent retains a fixed dollar 

amount of liability and cedes to the reinsurer a percentage of loss above that amount. Unlike a 

quota share treaty, therefore, the percentage of sharing between the insurer and reinsurer varies 

according to the limits of the underlying policy. 

Pro rata treaties provide the cedent with “surplus relief” and the capacity to write more business 

or at larger limits. Regulatory-based accounting rules generally provide that insurers must 

recognize premium revenues as earned over the duration of a policy. In contrast, acquisition 

costs – primarily commissions paid to agents at policy inception – are expensed immediately. 

One result is that the insurer’s reported regulatory-based capital in its financial statements is 

reduced at the inception and early stages of an insurance contract. A ceding commission, paid by

the reinsurer to the cedent under a pro rata reinsurance agreement, can be immediately 

recognized by the cedent as income for regulatory accounting purposes and can therefore

partially offset the burden of expensing up-front acquisition costs associated with obtaining the 

original insurance business.38 

 37 See section IV.A.3 of this Report. 38 The ceding commission compensates the cedent for producing and administering the ceded business. The surplus 

relief function may be particularly important for life insurers due to the relatively high acquisition costs. 
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b. Excess of Loss Reinsurance 

In contrast to pro rata reinsurance, excess of loss reinsurance is a form of protection against 

insured losses sustained above a predetermined and stated threshold, known as the cedent’s

“retention,”39 and thus does not create a proportional sharing of risk. A reinsurer also may 

require a cedent to co-participate for a portion of losses above the retention so that the cedent has 

additional “skin in the game.” Under excess of loss reinsurance, a cedent may choose to 

purchase coverage attaching at high levels of loss, thereby obtaining protection for a relatively 

modest premium. By indemnifying the insurer for losses above a specified level, excess of loss 

treaties help stabilize the net losses (i.e., after reinsurance recoveries) in an insurer’s portfolio.

Excess of loss treaties generally take one of three forms: “per occurrence” excess of loss, 

“aggregate” excess of loss, or “per risk” excess of loss. Per occurrence excess of loss treaties 

protect a cedent from the accumulation of multiple policy losses arising from a single event. 

Thus, the cedent’s retention will usually be much larger than its exposure under any policy that is 

subject to the treaty. Property catastrophe treaties, for example, are designed to protect against 

cumulative losses under multiple policies caused by a single natural disaster or other large-scale 

loss event. 

Aggregate excess of loss treaties protect against the accumulation of losses over the effective 

period of the reinsurance contract. Under an aggregate excess of loss treaty, the reinsurer will 

indemnify the insurer for a share of losses that exceed an agreed dollar amount or other agreed 

metric (such as percentage of aggregate net premiums). This form of reinsurance is also called 

“stop-loss” reinsurance.

Per risk (or per policy) excess of loss treaties provide protection above an insurer’s retention on 

individual risks or policies, rather than on an accident, event, or aggregate basis. The 

reinsurance contract will specify the class or type of business covered, and the retention and limit 

of the reinsurance contract will apply to each covered risk.

2. Facultative Reinsurance 

Unlike treaty reinsurance, facultative reinsurance does not result in an automatic cession of risk 

by the cedent, nor an automatic acceptance of risk by a reinsurer. Instead, facultative reinsurance 

permits an insurer to decide which specific insured risks will be submitted to a reinsurer for 

consideration. Upon such submission, the reinsurer has the opportunity to underwrite the 

individual risk, and may elect to accept or decline such risk. Facultative reinsurance may create 

greater administrative burdens on both cedents and reinsurers because potential risk cessions 

must be analyzed on an individual basis rather than in advance as a book of business. As with 

treaty reinsurance, facultative reinsurance may be structured as either excess of loss or pro rata, 

depending upon the needs of the cedent. Though insurers have a variety of reasons for using 

facultative reinsurance, it is generally purchased for large or unusual risks, which may be wholly 

or partially outside the scope of a cedent’s treaty arrangements.40

 39 “Retention,” the amount of loss the cedent keeps for its own account, is a reinsurance term roughly analogous to a 

deductible under an insurance policy. Glossary, in Reinsurance Contract Wording (Robert Strain, ed. 1992), 767. 40 David M. Raim and Joy L. Langford, Understanding Reinsurance, in New Appleman on Insurance Practice 

Guide, § 40.04[1] (2007). For example, the particular insured risk may be excluded under the relevant treaty, or 

the ceding insurer’s exposure may fall within the treaty’s retention.
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IV. THE PURPOSE AND IMPORTANCE OF REINSURANCE 

A. Uses of Reinsurance

Reinsurance is an important mechanism by which an insurer manages risk and the amount of 

capital it must hold to support such risk. Some of the more common purposes for reinsurance are 

highlighted below. Inasmuch as reinsurance is a business-to-business transaction, the purpose 

and terms of reinsurance contracts can vary greatly based upon the parties’ needs and 

commercial objectives. Accordingly, this list is not an exhaustive recitation of the purposes for 

which insurers purchase reinsurance, but is intended to illustrate the range of benefits reinsurance 

provides to cedents and to the insurance sector in the United States.41 

1. Stabilizing Underwriting Results

In order to offer products that cover risks faced by policyholders, an insurer generally must set 

prices (i.e., premiums) for its products before the “cost of goods sold” (i.e., claims) are known. 

For some coverages, it can take years — even decades — for all of the claims pertaining to a 

particular policy year to fully develop. The business of insurance is inherently susceptible to 

fluctuations in underwriting gains and losses, which can adversely affect an insurer’s financial 

position. 

Reinsurance can mitigate the risk of fluctuations in underwriting gains and losses faced by 

insurers. For example, insurers with significant exposures to catastrophic losses utilize

reinsurance to help manage the extent of losses from a single event. Insurers often use 

reinsurance to limit potential losses from an individual policy or on an entire portfolio of policies 

(“book of business”), thereby tempering the adverse impacts of volatility. 

2. Increasing Underwriting Capacity

To honor policy obligations, meet credit rating agency expectations, and comply with state-based 

regulatory requirements, insurers are required to hold capital. Regulatory requirements and 

potential loss levels that may significantly reduce or encumber capital may limit the ability of 

insurers to write increased, or even existing, levels of business, or to write policies with large 

limits.

Reinsurance addresses these challenges in at least two ways. First, reinsurance allows the insurer 

to transfer portions of the resulting risk to one or more reinsurers. For accounting purposes, the 

cedent’s transfer of risk is recognized as a reduction of the cedent’s policy liabilities (if the 

insurer has not yet paid the underlying policy claim) or as an asset (if the insurer has already paid 

the claim). The extent to which the receivable asset increases or the policy liabilities decrease, 

known as “credit for reinsurance,” increases the cedent’s reported policyholders’ surplus (PHS), 

i.e., the insurer’s assets less its liabilities as measured by regulatory accounting.

Second, insurers use reinsurance to help offset the reduction in PHS that otherwise can 

accompany writing too much business too fast.42 By transferring all or a portion of the insurer’s 

risk on specific policies or portfolios, an insurer increases its capacity to write additional new

 41 Retrocession provides many of the same benefits to a retrocedent as reinsurance provides to a primary insurer 

(e.g., allowing the retrocedent to write more business and providing risk diversification). 42 Policy acquisition costs, such as agents’ and brokers’ commissions, are expensed when paid at the inception of the 

policy for regulatory accounting purposes, rather than deferred as an asset and amortized over the term of the 

respective policies.
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business. For example, insurers are typically required to maintain ratios of net written premium 

(NWP), i.e., the amount of premium an insurer writes less the amount ceded to reinsurers, to 

PHS of 3:1.43 Through reinsurance, insurers can reduce net written premiums, increase surplus, 

and better manage NWP-to-PHS ratios within regulatory boundaries and within expectations of 

credit rating agencies.

Figure 2, based on a simplified scenario from the American Academy of Actuaries, illustrates 

this leveraging benefit:44 

Figure 2: Quota Share Reinsurance Example

In this example, both insurer ABC and XYZ have $5 million of PHS. Insurer ABC, which has 

not purchased reinsurance, has reached the maximum amount of premium ($15 million) that may 

be written based on its PHS of $5 million and the need to limit the NWP to PHS ratio to 3:1. In 

comparison, insurer XYZ is able to write an additional $5 million of gross premium while still 

maintaining the same 3:1 ratio, because of a reinsurance agreement. Under insurer XYZ’s quota 

share reinsurance agreement, XYZ cedes 25 percent of its gross premiums (i.e., $5 million) and 

losses to a reinsurer. Insurer XYZ therefore may increase its market share while maintaining the 

specified NWP to PHS ratio. 

Reinsurance offers related potential advantages for both parties to the contract. A cedent can 

maximize its use of sales, underwriting, policy administration and claims settlement capabilities, 

while limiting its risk for those underlying policies; correspondingly, the reinsurer(s) can absorb 

insurance risk exposures from the cedent and earn a share of profits from the underlying business 

without having to build distribution networks and underwriting and claims-handling 

infrastructures.

45

3. Supporting Entry Into and Exit from Insurance Markets

Reinsurance may assist insurers seeking to expand into new markets or to withdraw from 

particular segments. Even established insurers with ample capital may need support when

entering new markets, new lines of business, or offering new products and features. Reinsurers 

can assist the transition by assuming a portion of the insurer’s related risks. In addition, with 

regard to both new and established markets, reinsurers may offer advice and expertise on

 43 Comment in response to the FRN on behalf of American Academy of Actuaries, 2 (August 27, 2012). 44 This simplified example excludes reference to ceding commission and other expenses associated with reinsurance 

transactions, as well as changes in surplus. 45 Comment in response to the FRN on behalf of Insurance Law Committee of NYC Bar Association, 4 (August 24, 

2012).
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underwriting, pricing and claims-handling issues. Moreover, insurers sometimes wish to reduce 

or withdraw product offerings in particular markets. An insurer managing a discontinued line of 

business can transfer all or part of its related loss exposure to an assuming insurer through the 

use of reinsurance. 

4. Promoting Capital Allocation Among Affiliates

Insurers are often owned by, or under common ownership and control with, other insurance 

companies. Separate insurance companies within a group may exist for legacy reasons (a result 

of past acquisitions), or might have been formed to operate in different jurisdictions for 

regulatory reasons, to sell different products, or to use different distribution systems.46 Intraaffiliate reinsurance within a group may occur for many of the reasons that an insurer might

otherwise purchase reinsurance from a non-affiliate. Additional reasons that are specific to the 

relationship between and among affiliates often include: 

• Pooling Arrangements – Insurers that are part of a group may participate in a joint 

underwriting pool, in which the disparate underwriting experiences of participants are

pooled together. The risks are then allocated back to one, some, or all participants 

sharing in that underwriting experience, each assuming through reinsurance its assigned 

portion of the aggregate underwriting results of the entire pool. 

• Efficient Capital Allocation – Intra-company reinsurance can be used to tailor the risk or 

financial profile of separate legal entities within the group to address regulatory, rating 

agency, or managerial concerns. In addition, in some instances reinsurance through an 

affiliate may be more attractive, flexible or stable over time as compared with reinsurance 

available through the open market. 

• Reinsurance Captives in the U.S. Life Industry – Life insurers sometimes use reinsurance 

on an intra-company basis to manage required statutory reserve levels. Regulatory 

concerns about this widespread practice continue to receive attention within the national 

and international insurance supervisory community.

47 

5. Achieving Risk Concentration or Diversification 

Insurers generally seek a balance between risk concentration and diversification when 

underwriting one or more books of business. Insurers may use reinsurance to assist in achieving

a targeted risk profile. While a large pool of relatively homogeneous risks may suit certain 

business objectives, including efficient use of a company’s underwriting expertise, too much 

exposure to one class of risk might leave an insurer susceptible to adverse consequences due to 

that concentration (e.g., an accumulation of correlated exposures in a catastrophe-prone area). 

Risk transfer in this manner may be particularly important for smaller insurers that have more 

limited opportunities to diversify risk through underwriting practices than do larger insurers with

 46 Id. 47 See Department of the Treasury, Federal Insurance Office Annual Report on the Insurance Industry (2014), 43-44

(hereinafter FIO 2014 Annual Report) (addressing progress of states in reforming regulatory oversight respecting 

transfer of risk to life captives); Department of the Treasury, How to Modernize and Improve the System of 

Insurance Regulation in the United States, 32 (December 2013) (hereinafter Modernization Report) 

(recommending that states develop a uniform and transparent solvency oversight regime for the transfer of risk to 

reinsurance captives). Both reports available at http://www.treasury.gov/initiatives/fio/reports-and-notices/.
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risk profiles that include multiple lines of business written in multiple jurisdictions or across 

broader and more diverse geographic regions.48

B. The Importance of Reinsurance

The reinsurance marketplace is important to the U.S. insurance industry and, as such, contributes 

to the general economic prosperity of the country’s families and businesses. As described above, 

reinsurance enhances the availability and affordability of insurance in the United States.

49 

Available and affordable insurance helps spread risk, reduces financial uncertainty for businesses 

and individuals, provides private capital in a post-event recovery, and promotes economic 

growth. By spreading insurance risks globally, reinsurance diversifies local insurance markets 

while providing capital relief and balance sheet protection.

The extent to which U.S. property & casualty (P/C) insurers rely on reinsurance as of year-end 

2013 is illustrated in Figure 3 on a line-by-line basis. The average utilization is approximately 

19 percent across the board when considering both affiliated and unaffiliated reinsurers, and 

12 percent taking only unaffiliated reinsurers into account. For property lines of insurance 

business, the average utilization is 18 percent for unaffiliated reinsurers, and is as high as 40 

percent for allied lines.

Figure 3: P/C Reinsurance Utilization By Line of Insurance

Source: ANNUAL STATEMENT for the year December 31, 2013 of the P/C Combined Industry

 48 International Association of Insurance Supervisors, Reinsurance and Financial Stability, 7 (July 19, 2012); 

Comment in response to the FRN on behalf of Insurance Europe, 2 (August 27, 2012).

49 See Swiss Re, The Essential Guide to Reinsurance, 14-22 (2013); Comment in response to the FRN on behalf of 

Reinsurance Association of America, 14 (August 27, 2012). 

1 2 3 4 5 6

Reinsurance Assumed Reinsurance Ceded

Direct Business From Affiliates

From NonAffiliates To Affiliates To Non-Affiliates Net premiums Written 

Cols. 1 + 2 + 3 - 4 -5 Net Retention

Reins 

Utilization

Unafiliated 

Reins 

Utilization

1 Fire 13,162,255,451 866,859,399 2,747,969,409 2,161,423,980 3,387,127,806 11,228,532,477 66.9% 33.1% 20.2%

2 Allied lines 26,346,268,462 1,443,047,665 3,616,966,227 4,544,716,817 12,662,547,697 14,198,993,170 45.2% 54.8% 40.3%

3 Farmowners multiple peril 3,683,727,839 434,895,200 132,667,201 266,556,652 473,085,843 3,511,647,743 82.6% 17.4% 11.1%

4 Homeowners multiple peril 80,671,706,514 149,856,374 2,746,363,323 1,392,825,252 9,402,771,084 72,772,333,520 87.1% 12.9% 11.3%

5 Commercial multiple peril 37,933,389,810 818,556,543 1,820,735,846 2,639,970,124 4,688,006,032 33,244,702,411 81.9% 18.1% 11.6%

6 Mortgage guaranty 4,549,732,713 13,662,445 27,717,048 20,988,352 240,177,288 4,329,946,572 94.3% 5.7% 5.2%

8 Ocean marine 3,955,929,531 124,095,252 751,729,484 259,613,133 1,708,630,958 2,863,510,172 59.3% 40.7% 35.4%

9 Inland marine 17,256,885,852 429,588,043 462,459,220 1,378,839,149 6,623,103,682 10,146,990,290 55.9% 44.1% 36.5%

10 Financial guaranty 674,864,316 80,186,749 12,931,202 (4,430,339) 61,931,125 710,481,483 92.5% 7.5% 8.1%

11.1 Medical professional liability - occurrence 2,408,868,965 (36,593,085) 109,374,131 45,755,078 146,306,113 2,289,588,821 92.3% 7.7% 5.9%

11.2 Medical professional liability - claims-made 7,363,251,622 57,861,693 373,010,765 763,858,820 780,163,729 6,250,101,239 80.2% 19.8% 10.0%

12 Earthquake 2,292,589,227 35,401,429 316,486,513 523,017,593 534,468,045 1,586,991,523 60.0% 40.0% 20.2%

13 Group accident and health 4,688,655,561 587,435,340 947,149,060 338,329,910 1,178,713,053 4,706,196,993 75.6% 24.4% 18.9%

14 Credit accident and health (group and individual) 208,639,731 60,627,832 2,082,912 35,791,338 169,796,126 65,763,010 24.2% 75.8% 62.6%

15 Other accident and health 1,771,736,150 407,833,898 694,186,408 (26,073,129) 132,987,487 2,766,821,265 96.3% 3.7% 4.6%

16 Workers' compensation 49,312,678,773 359,674,597 2,106,409,617 4,524,024,181 6,116,390,281 41,138,348,528 79.5% 20.5% 11.8%

17.1 Other liability - occurrence 33,878,793,848 1,317,670,979 4,173,260,401 5,455,896,423 7,152,714,565 26,761,114,244 68.0% 32.0% 18.2%

17.2 Other liability - claims-made 19,598,774,816 304,008,990 1,966,796,523 3,481,645,018 3,093,822,540 15,294,112,776 69.9% 30.1% 14.1%

17.3 Excess Workers' Compensation 1,070,757,369 2,737,487 89,061,503 169,147,726 149,309,393 844,099,242 72.6% 27.4% 12.8%

18.1 Products liability - occurrence 2,885,306,864 45,652,155 111,053,942 438,822,348 295,532,101 2,307,658,510 75.9% 24.1% 9.7%

18.2 Products liability - claims-made 560,201,527 23,134,676 43,745,077 82,266,208 133,594,984 411,220,091 65.6% 34.4% 21.3%

19.1, 19.2 Private passenger auto liability 111,134,418,384 616,948,097 2,259,531,921 1,923,419,790 4,640,706,278 107,446,772,336 94.2% 5.8% 4.1%

19.3, 19.4 Commercial auto liability 20,505,362,474 529,227,294 1,076,924,773 2,012,165,151 1,745,516,744 18,353,832,664 83.0% 17.0% 7.9%

21 Auto physical damage 76,893,751,207 238,032,716 1,334,199,254 3,341,180,979 2,135,861,928 72,988,940,282 93.0% 7.0% 2.7%

22 Aircraft (all perils) 1,731,716,771 104,795,354 384,284,140 349,325,315 803,748,320 1,067,722,628 48.1% 51.9% 36.2%

23 Fidelity 1,203,151,960 53,027,559 70,897,871 51,232,623 151,645,850 1,124,198,921 84.7% 15.3% 11.4%

24 Surety 5,255,473,663 334,076,363 494,314,120 729,977,396 483,147,632 4,870,739,113 80.1% 19.9% 7.9%

26 Burglary and theft 233,695,811 7,728,892 14,312,957 31,818,715 18,665,967 205,252,983 80.3% 19.7% 7.3%

27 Boiler and machinery 1,558,937,570 116,251,535 1,230,367,283 229,221,927 696,815,371 1,979,519,083 68.1% 31.9% 24.0%

28 Credit 1,881,380,055 113,347,106 262,587,874 595,533,564 494,460,735 1,167,320,742 51.7% 48.3% 21.9%

29 International 76,365,530 8,475,954 80,189,703 39,206,894 12,651,382 113,172,907 68.6% 31.4% 7.7%

30 Warranty 2,518,589,527 6,607,878 42,704,051 615,825,806 796,735,751 1,155,339,900 45.0% 55.0% 31.0%

31 Reinsurance - Nonproportional Assumed Property XXX 704,548,183 9,840,701,005 2,108,680,923 724,312,181 7,712,256,083

32 Reinsurance - Nonproportional Assumed Liability XXX 115,942,435 6,233,917,019 1,597,034,052 181,992,366 4,570,833,032

33 Reinsurance - Nonproportional Assumed Financial Lines XXX 25,092,957 205,336,625 38,638,381 5,527,352 186,263,844

34 Aggregate write-ins for other lines of business 1,378,557,731 3,062,845 38,832,725 176,092,236 112,299,414 1,132,061,650 79.7% 20.3% 7.9%

35 TOTALS 538,646,415,616 10,503,358,830 46,821,257,145 42,332,338,387 72,135,267,197 481,503,380,221 80.8% 19.2% 12.1%

Casualty Lines 378,403,731,878 5,685,297,470 18,711,864,617 23,652,050,455 40,361,891,751 338,786,930,672 84.1% 15.9% 10.0%

Property Lines 144,159,491,513 3,371,569,685 10,918,285,701 12,926,807,173 28,633,445,172 116,889,069,887 73.8% 26.2% 18.1%

Financial Lines 16,083,192,234 600,908,100 911,152,166 2,009,127,402 2,228,098,381 13,358,026,731 75.9% 24.1% 12.7%

Line of Business
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Life insurers rely on domestic and international reinsurers to reduce losses, minimize exposure to 

significant risks, acquire or dispose of blocks of policies or business lines, and to provide 

additional capital for future growth. Ready access to diversified and well-capitalized reinsurance 

markets is important to maintain the financial strength of U.S. life insurers, to enable those 

insurers to meet policyholder obligations, and to expand access to affordable life insurance 

products in the United States.

In the property market, the key role of reinsurance may be most apparent following natural 

disasters and other catastrophes. Property catastrophe reinsurance provides a crucial backstop 

for insurers when low-frequency, high-severity events occur, and this market serves as an 

important illustration of the global nature of the reinsurance business. Catastrophe reinsurance

indemnifies ceding insurers following an accumulation of insured losses from a single event, 

such as a hurricane, earthquake, tornado, winter storm, wild fire, or terrorist attack.

50 

Catastrophe protection as typically structured in reinsurance programs is comprised of a series of 

high-limit layers, often with multiple reinsurers participating to varying degrees on each layer. 

Catastrophe reinsurance programs are intended by the purchasing property insurers to provide 

reasonable assurance of protection for losses from one or more severe events in a given year 

(e.g., measured as a probable maximum loss for a 1-in-200 year event). 

The United States is a large insurance market, with a high degree of private market insurance 

penetration, and insurers writing U.S. business have substantial exposure to catastrophe losses. 

Seven of the ten costliest catastrophes in the world, as measured by insured losses, occurred in 

whole or in part in the United States.

51 Hurricanes Katrina, Rita, and Wilma in 2005 resulted in 

about $90 billion of U.S. insured property losses, of which non-U.S. reinsurers paid 

approximately $59 billion.52 Likewise, reinsurers indemnified insurers for about 60% of the 

insured losses from the September 11th terrorist attacks, which at the time was the largest 

insured loss in U.S. history.

53 More recently, Superstorm Sandy in 2012 resulted in an estimated 

$26 billion of insured losses, with insurers accounting for approximately $19 billion of this 

amount.54 Approximately 40 percent of the loss to insurers was reimbursed through 

reinsurance.55

 50 Since shortly after the September 11, 2001, terrorist attacks, the federal government has provided a backstop for 

certain insured losses resulting from terrorism through the Terrorism Risk Insurance Program (“TRIP”), pursuant 

to the Terrorism Risk Insurance Act of 2002, 15 U.S.C. § 6701 note. See The President’s Working Group on 

Financial Markets, The Long-Term Availability and Affordability of Insurance for Terrorism Risk (2014). TRIP 

is scheduled to expire on December 31, 2014. 51 Munich Re, Significant Natural Catastrophes 1980 – 2013, available at

http://www.munichre.com/site/corporate/get/documents_E1423023189/mr/assetpool.shared/Documents/5_Touch/_NatCatService/Significant-NaturalCatastrophes/2013/10-costliest-events-ordered-by-insured-losses-worldwide.pdf. 52 Comment in response to the FRN on behalf of Insurance Europe, 3 (August 27, 2012). 53 Comment in response to the FRN on behalf of Association of Bermuda Insurers and Reinsurers, 5 (August 27, 

2012). 54 Insurance Journal, 1 Year After Superstorm Sandy: Quick Economic Facts (October 2013), available at 

http://www.insurancejournal.com/news/east/2013/10/29/309538.htm (additionally, approximately $8 billion in 

losses were paid by the National Flood Insurance Program). 55 Global Reinsurance Forum, Global Reinsurance: Strengthening Disaster Risk Resilience, 11 (September 2014).
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Of course, it is not only in the United States that consumers, businesses and insurers are subject 

to the risk of loss from catastrophes. Recent decades have been described as a new era for 

catastrophes world-wide.56 Global insured catastrophe losses reached $116 billion in 2011, 

which was the second worst catastrophe year as measured by insured loss. Reinsurers assumed 

more than half of those insured catastrophe losses.57

As Figure 4 illustrates, while the number of events has declined from the 2005 peak, the global 

trend has been toward increasing numbers of catastrophes. When viewed in recent historical 

context (particularly with respect to Atlantic hurricanes affecting the United States), relatively 

few natural catastrophes occurred in 2013. Nonetheless, the United States experienced nine 

significant natural catastrophes (winter storms, thunderstorms with tornado outbreaks, and 

flooding), each exceeding $1 billion in economic loss. The aggregate natural disaster loss of 

nearly $13 billion in 2013 was substantially below the average of the preceding 10 years. 

Globally, 2013 saw more than $3.5 billion of losses in Germany from hailstorms, $3 billion of 

losses in central Europe from flooding, and over $1.5 billion of losses in Canada from flooding. 

Typhoon Haiyan caused thousands of deaths and devastating property loss in the Philippines. 

Worldwide insured natural catastrophe losses in 2013 were approximately $31 billion.58 

Figure 4: Number of Events -- 1970-2013

Source: Swiss Re, sigma No 01/2014, Natural Catastrophes and Man-made Disasters in 2013 (2014)

 56 Kunreuther, H. and Michel-Kerjan, E., At War with the Weather: Managing Large-Scale Risks in a New Era of 

Catastrophes, Preface, MIT Press (2009). 57 Swiss Re, sigma No 01/2013, Natural Catastrophes and Man-made Disasters in 2012, 2 (2013). 58 See generally Munich Re, 2013 Natural Catastrophe Year In Review (Jan. 7, 2014), available at

http://www.iii.org/assets/docs/pdf/MunichRe-010714.pdf.
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Moreover, while individuals, businesses, governments, and insurers have a shared interest in 

implementing mitigation measures, the need for risk transfer mechanisms to address exposure to 

catastrophic losses will likely continue to increase. Several studies have shown, for example, 

that many natural disasters which occurred in the past (and which are capable of repetition) 

would be far more costly were they to occur today, and that in general loss severity from natural 

catastrophes will continue to grow.

59 

International reinsurers are of particular importance to the U.S. insurance industry following 

catastrophes, when insurance capital plays an essential role in post-event recovery. Reinsurers 

support the insurers that contribute billions for reconstruction efforts and which aid property 

owners and local, state and regional economies.60

 59 See, e.g., Swiss Re, U.S. Tornadoes: An Examination of the Past to Prepare for the Future – Modeling for a 

Complex and Growing Peril (2014), available at http://media.swissre.com/documents/2014_us_tornadoes.pdf

(observing that the primary drivers of increased tornado loss severity are population growth, asset growth, and 

value growth); Karen Clark & Co, Historical Hurricanes that Would Cause $10 Billion or More of Insured 

Losses Today (August 2012), available at

http://www.karenclarkandco.com/pdf/HistoricalHurricanes_Brochure.pdf; (identifying 28 historical storms 

which, if occurring today with the same meteorological parameters, would likely cause $10 billion or more of 

insured losses); Swiss Re, The Big One: The East Coast’s USD 100 Billion Hurricane Event (September 2014), 

available at http://media.swissre.com/documents/the_big_one_us_hurricane.pdf (modeling the 1821 Norfolk and 

Long Island hurricane). 60 See, e.g., International Association of Insurance Supervisors, Reinsurance and Financial Stability, 8 (July 19, 

2012). 
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V. REGULATION OF REINSURANCE IN THE UNITED STATES

Although the business of insurance is primarily regulated at the state level, the U.S. insurance 

sector is in a larger sense subject to an integrated federal-state framework.61 A state insurance 

regulator focuses on the financial strength (solvency) of the insurers that are subject to the 

jurisdiction of that regulator, as well as on market conduct issues (e.g., product design, pricing, 

and claims payment practices). Among other interstate and international prudential matters 

relating to insurance, the federal government is involved with oversight of savings and loan 

holding companies that control insurers, as well as any insurer that may be a nonbank financial 

company that the Financial Stability Oversight Council (Council) determines should be subject 

to supervision by the Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System and enhanced 

prudential standards.62

While reinsurance serves a range of important functions, regulators recognize that it can 

concentrate credit risk into comparatively few counterparties. The credit risk created by 

reinsurance—which often involves large transactions—can be measured by the amount of 

reserves a reinsurer holds for losses, loss adjustment expenses and life, annuity and health 

insurance benefits.63 These reserves are based on the expected future claims payments on the 

risks assumed from the ceding insurers. Such credit risk is mitigated because the transactions 

must be conducted according to a prudential regulatory framework that limits the amount of risk 

that is transferred to any one reinsurer,64 requires the use of collateral in certain cases, and 

requires appropriate amounts of capital to be held by the ceding insurers.

Regulation of the business of reinsurance in the United States is considered to be either direct or

indirect. Inasmuch as reinsurance is part of the business of insurance, it is directly regulated 

primarily at the state level in the United States if the reinsurer is licensed or domiciled in a given 

state.

As described below, a substantial portion of reinsurance supporting the U.S. insurance sector is 

provided by companies not licensed in all states and, in many cases, neither domiciled nor 

licensed in the United States. While a non-U.S. company may establish one or more reinsurance 

affiliates in the United States, developing that corporate structure would require each insurance 

subsidiary to be licensed in each relevant state, which may limit the flow of capital. A company 

reinsuring U.S. cedents that is not “authorized”65 by any state would not be subject to direct

regulation by state insurance regulators, but that company nonetheless is indirectly regulated 

through requirements under state laws on the cedent-licensees and by certain terms of 

reinsurance contracts. 

 61 In 1945, Congress enacted the McCarran-Ferguson Act to clarify that state laws governing the business of 

insurance are not invalidated, impaired, or superseded by any federal law unless the federal law specifically 

relates to the business of insurance. 15 U.S.C. §§ 1011-1015. Section II of the Modernization Report discusses 

the history of insurance regulation in the United States, including an explanation of how the current state-based 

system developed. 62 See generally section V.C below. 63 At the end of 2013, for example, U.S. P/C reinsurers reported $63 billion in loss and loss adjustment expense 

reserves. Reinsurance Association of America, Offshore Reinsurance in the U.S. Market: 2013 Data, 10 (2014). 

By contrast, overall insurance industry P/C reserves were nearly $600 billion. FIO 2014 Annual Report, 26. 64 See, e.g., 11 CRR-NY § 125, et seq. (New York regulations); 18 Del. Code. § 911 (Delaware regulations). 65 An “authorized” insurer is one that is licensed or accredited in a given state. See generally Kimberly M. Welsh, 

Regulation of Reinsurance, in New Appleman on Insurance Law Library Edition, §78.02[1].
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A. Direct Regulation 

In the United States, a state insurance regulator directly regulates reinsurers domiciled and 

licensed in its state as well as reinsurers licensed in its state but domiciled in another state.66 

When an insurer cedes business to a licensed reinsurer, the cedent is permitted under regulatory 

accounting rules to recognize a reduction in its liabilities for the amount of ceded liabilities, 

without a regulatory requirement for the reinsurer to post collateral to secure the reinsurer’s 

ultimate payment of the reinsured liabilities. A reinsurer licensed in a state is subject to solvency 

and other regulations imposed by the state which are applicable to insurance companies 

generally.

67 Each state, for example, specifies a minimum level of capital and surplus that 

licensed insurers and reinsurers must maintain. State laws also address restrictions or limits on 

an insurer’s investment portfolios, impose risk-based capital requirements, and provide for onsite examinations, annual and quarterly statement filings, and actuarially-certified opinions, 

among other requirements.68

B. Indirect Regulation 

A large and increasing proportion of reinsurance premiums from U.S.-based insurers are ceded 

to reinsurers based outside the United States that are not licensed by any U.S. state, and thus not 

directly subject to prudential regulation by any state.

69 While state insurance regulators do not 

have direct supervisory authority over such non-state licensed non-U.S. reinsurers, longstanding

state laws pertaining to the terms and conditions of reinsurance contracts to which U.S. cedents 

are party amount to indirect reinsurance regulation of those cedents’ reinsurers. Such laws 

impose limitations on the ability of a licensed U.S. insurer to receive “credit for reinsurance” in 

its regulatory financial statement unless certain obligations by the reinsurer are met. For the 

reasons outlined above in section IV.A, an insurer’s ability to take credit for the reinsurance is an 

important aspect of the transaction; therefore, as a practical matter the imposition of such 

regulatory requirements on the cedent and on the form of the reinsurance contract becomes a 

business requirement that the cedent must, in turn, impose on its unlicensed reinsurers. 

A key requirement has been (and generally remains) that in order to receive financial statement 

credit for unauthorized reinsurance, a U.S. cedent must be the beneficiary of security posted by 

the reinsurer, providing collateral equal to 100 percent of the actuarially-estimated liabilities

under the reinsurance contract.70

In 2011, state insurance regulators unanimously approved amendments to the NAIC’s Model 

Law which, if enacted into law or otherwise implemented in a state, would authorize that state’s 

insurance regulator to certify certain unauthorized reinsurers for reduced collateral requirements. 

As of October 2014, some form of authorization for the state insurance regulator to accept less 

than 100 percent collateral from non-U.S. reinsurers had been adopted in 23 states, but those

 66 Subject to restrictions in the NRRA, addressed in section V.C of this Report. 67 In most instances, laws and regulations that are applicable to “insurers” domiciled in a state apply to licensed 

“reinsurers” as well unless otherwise specified. See, e.g., N.D. Cent. Code § 26.1-02-05. A reinsurer not offering 

policies to the public as a primary insurer, for example, would not be subject to approval of its rates and forms. 68 Comment in response to the FRN on behalf of Tort Trial and Insurance Practice Section of the American Bar 

Association, 4 (August 27, 2012). 69 Comment in response to the FRN on behalf of Reinsurance Association of America, 5 (August 27, 2012). Such 

companies are subject to the applicable supervision of the respective non-U.S. domiciliary jurisdiction. 70 See, e.g., Iowa Admin. Code r. 191-5.33(510).
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state laws and regulations have not necessarily been uniform in structure or implementation. 

FIO has stated previously that uniformity should be pursued with respect to the supervision of 

reinsurance, including collateral requirements, because global diversification and capital 

allocation are beneficial to the U.S. insurance industry and the consumers that rely on it.

71 The 

subjects of reinsurance collateral reform and the role of the federal government in establishing 

such uniformity are addressed in section V.D of this Report.

C. Federal Involvement in Reinsurance and Industry Oversight

The federal government participates in multiple reinsurance programs for markets served by 

private market insurers or reinsurers, including: (1) the Federal Crop Insurance Corporation 

(FCIC),72 under which the federal government provides reinsurance to commercial writers of 

crop insurance; (2) the Price-Anderson Nuclear Industries Indemnification Act,73 under which 

nuclear power licensees are required to contribute to a fund (currently limited to approximately 

$13 billion) in the event of an incident leading to damages exceeding coverage under commercial 

insurance policies;74 (3) the Overseas Private Investment Corporation (OPIC),75 an independent 

government corporation providing political risk insurance to support investment by U.S. 

businesses in emerging markets and developing countries, and which may use reinsurance in 

fulfilling its mandate; (4) the aviation war risk program,76 under which the Federal Aviation 

Administration (FAA) supplies insurance or reinsurance for aircraft when the President 

determines that commercial air service is necessary in the interest of national defense or foreign 

policy, and the Secretary of the U.S. Department of Transportation determines that such 

insurance could not be obtained on reasonable terms in the private market; and (5) the National 

Flood Insurance Program (NFIP), under which the federal government (through the Federal 

Emergency Management Agency, FEMA) sells residential flood insurance, and which under 

recent legislation may in the future be supported by private market reinsurance.77

In addition, the Terrorism Risk Insurance Act (TRIA), a post-September 11, 2001, law 

establishing the Terrorism Risk Insurance Program (TRIP) in Treasury, provides a backstop for 

insured commercial property and casualty losses resulting from a certified “act of terrorism.”78 

As of publication of this Report, TRIA will expire on December 31, 2014. Terrorism risk 

insurance supports a broad range of economic activities across the United States, and in some 

instances may be prohibitively expensive or unavailable in the absence of TRIP.79

 71 See Modernization Report at 37. 72 7 U.S.C. § 1501, et seq.

73 42 U.S.C. § 2210.

74 10 C.F.R. Part 140.

75 22 U.S.C. § 2191, et seq. 76 49 U.S.C. §§ 44301-10. Authority to provide commercial aviation war risk insurance, other than insurance for 

aircraft carrying goods or providing services on behalf of the U.S. government, expired on December 11, 2014. 

49 U.S.C. 44310. There is a similar program for maritime war risk, administered by the Maritime Administration 

within the Department of Transportation. 46 U.S.C. §§ 53901-12. 77 Regarding the NFIP, see Box 2. 78 15 U.S.C. § 6701 note. 79 See The President’s Working Group on Financial Markets, The Long-Term Availability and Affordability of 

Insurance for Terrorism Risk (2014), available at http://www.treasury.gov/initiatives/fio/reports-and-notices.
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Treasury also has a longstanding regulatory role with respect to reinsurers of companies writing 

surety bonds for federal projects.

80 Treasury’s Surety Bond Branch certifies insurers to directly

write and reinsure federal surety bonds. A “surety bond” is a contract under which one party (the 

surety) guarantees the performance of certain obligations of a second party (the principal) to a 

third party (the obligee). By regulation, sureties can cover excess risks on federal surety bonds 

through reinsurance provided by Treasury-certified reinsurers. Treasury also approves “admitted 

reinsurers,” which Treasury-certified sureties can use to cover non-Federal excess risks.

Several provisions of the Dodd-Frank Act have implications regarding federal roles in the

oversight of reinsurance. First, Part II of the Nonadmitted and Reinsurance Reform Act of 2010 

(NRRA) specifically addresses the regulation of reinsurance.81 The purpose of the NRRA is to 

enhance uniformity in the state-based solvency regulation of insurers and reinsurers by 

increasing deference to the state in which the reinsurer is domiciled or licensed. 

The NRRA addresses this goal by designating the regulator from a reinsurer’s domiciliary state 

as the sole state regulator responsible for the financial solvency of the reinsurer.82 Previously, 

each state in which a reinsurer was licensed had the authority to regulate the reinsurer, which 

could make the reinsurer subject to as many as 56 state-law standards. In addition, the NRRA 

provides that if an insurer is domiciled in an NAIC-accredited state,83 and that state has allowed 

the insurer to take financial statement credit for certain reinsurance, then another state may not 

deny the insurer such credit for reinsurance.84 Previously any state could, and certain states did, 

impose disparate extraterritorial regulatory regimes addressing credit for the same reinsurance.85

Second, the Director of FIO is a member of the Council and is authorized to recommend that the 

Council designate a nonbank financial company that is an insurer (or an affiliate of an insurer) to 

be subject to supervision by the Federal Reserve and enhanced prudential standards.86 Nonbank 

financial companies that could be subject to these authorities may include reinsurers.

87

 80 See 31 C.F.R. Part 223. The Approved Surety list is cross-referenced in other federal programs, e.g., customs 

bonds. See 19 C.F.R. § 113.37(a). 81 Subtitle B of title V of the Dodd-Frank Act. 82 15 U.S.C. § 8222(a).

83 Developed following the failure of several large insurers in the 1980’s, the NAIC’s Financial Regulation 

Standards and Accreditation Program is a peer review exercise through which state regulators assess whether a 

state regulatory agency meets a set of legal, financial, and organizational standards. A state insurance regulatory 

department is “accredited” if it meets these standards. As of December 2013, all fifty states, the District of 

Columbia and Puerto Rico are accredited. NAIC, Financial Regulation Standards and Accreditation Program

(December 2013). 84 15 U.S.C. § 8221(a). Similarly, the NRRA also prohibits a state from requiring a reinsurer domiciled in another 

state to provide any financial information beyond that which the reinsurer is required to file with its domiciliary 

state. 15 U.S.C. § 8221(b)(1). 85 In October 2013, Treasury released its 2013 Report on the Impact of Part II of the Nonadmitted and Reinsurance 

Reform Act in which it found that Part II of the NRRA has not had an adverse impact on the ability of state 

regulators to access reinsurance information for regulated companies. 86 12 U.S.C. § 5323.

87 12 U.S.C. §§ 5311(4) (nonbank financial company definitions), 5323 (authority of the Council to determine that a 

nonbank financial company shall be subject to the supervision of the Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve

and enhanced prudential standards); 31 U.S.C. § 313(c)(1)(C) (providing authority to FIO to recommend to the 

Council that it designate an insurer or an affiliate of an insurer as a nonbank financial company subject to the 

supervision of the Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve and enhanced prudential standards). 
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Finally, the Dodd-Frank Act authorizes FIO to “coordinate federal efforts and develop federal 

policy on prudential aspects of international insurance matters, including representing the United 

States, as appropriate, in the International Association of Insurance Supervisors [IAIS].”88 

Currently, the Director of FIO serves as a member of the IAIS Executive Committee as well as 

Chair of its Technical Committee. The Technical Committee is developing the Common 

Framework (ComFrame) for the Supervision of Internationally Active Insurance Groups 

(IAIGs).89 The criteria for supervisory identification of an IAIG would apply to IAIGs that are 

reinsurers as well as to those that are primary insurers.90 

In the international context, the IAIS is involved in the development of global capital standards 

for the insurance sector as called upon by the Financial Stability Board (FSB).91 In 2014, the 

IAIS published a Basic Capital Requirement (BCR) applicable to a global systemically important 

insurer (G-SII).

92 The BCR is intended to serve as a foundation for Higher Loss Absorbency 

(HLA) requirements, an additional capital component that would apply to G-SIIs, and which 

remains in development. The IAIS is also developing a more comprehensive and risk-sensitive 

Insurance Capital Standard (ICS) which would be applicable to IAIGs (which includes G-SIIs). 

It is presently anticipated that from 2019, the ICS will commence to apply to IAIGs, and could 

then replace the BCR as the foundation for HLA requirements. International insurance standards 

are not self-executing, and are without legal effect in the United States until implemented 

through a federal or state process.

93

FIO’s Director is also one of six members of the Steering Committee of the EU-U.S. Insurance 

Project (the Project), the objective of which is to contribute to an increased mutual understanding 

and enhanced cooperation between the EU and the United States in order to promote business 

opportunities, consumer protection and effective insurance supervision.94 Significant 

components of the Project focus on the regulation of collateral for reinsurance and on examining 

differences between such regulation in the EU and the United States. The Project – which 

includes representation of a range of European and domestic stakeholders (including U.S. state 

regulators) – has also been exploring how to achieve a consistent approach within each 

jurisdiction, including consideration of reductions and possible removal of collateral 

 88 31 U.S.C. § 313(c)(1)(E). The 56 state-level insurance supervisors, the NAIC and the Board of Governors of the 

Federal Reserve System also are represented at the IAIS.

89 Under the current draft of ComFrame, two criteria must be met for an insurance group to be identified as an 

IAIG: (1) international activity, i.e., the insurance group has premiums written in three or more jurisdictions, and 

the percentage of gross written premium outside the home jurisdiction is at least 10 percent of the group’s total 

gross written premium; and (2) size, i.e., based on a rolling three-year average, the insurance group has total 

assets of at least $50 billion or gross written premiums of at least $10 billion. However, involved supervisors 

have discretion in applying the criteria to determine whether an insurance group qualifies as an IAIG. ComFrame 

draft and materials available at http://www.iaisweb.org/Supervisory-Material/Common-Framework-765. 90 See Modernization Report at 23-24. FIO is also participating in work through the IAIS Technical Committee and 

various subcommittees in the development of a risk-based capital standard that is expected to become part of 

ComFrame and which, if implemented in a given jurisdiction, would apply at the group level to IAIGs, including 

reinsurers that are identified as IAIGs.

91 http://www.financialstabilityboard.org/wp-content/uploads/r_130718.pdf.

92 http://www.iaisweb.org/view/element_href.cfm?src=1/23741.pdf. 93 See Testimony of FIO Director Michael T. McRaith before House Financial Services Committee (Nov. 18, 2014), 

available at http://financialservices.house.gov/uploadedfiles/hhrg-113-ba04-wstate-mmcraith-20141118.pdf. 94 Information relating to the Project is available at http://www.treasury.gov/initiatives/fio/EUUS%20Insurance%20Project/Pages/default.aspx.
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requirements in both jurisdictions in favor of a risk-based determination for all reinsurers in 

relation to a cedent’s credit for reinsurance.

With regard to reinsurance, the Modernization Report recommends development of a uniform 

and transparent solvency oversight regime for the transfer of risk to reinsurance captives, and 

pursuit of a covered agreement for reinsurance collateral requirements.95 A covered agreement 

is a written bilateral or multilateral agreement between the United States and one or more foreign 

governments, authorities, or regulatory entities regarding prudential measures with respect to the 

business of insurance or reinsurance which meets certain specified standards.

96 Work towards 

initiating negotiations for a covered agreement with leading reinsurance jurisdictions 

continues.97

D. Credit for Reinsurance Collateral Reform

As discussed above, regulatory oversight of the reinsurance industry in the United States is part 

of the integrated federal-state framework applicable to the insurance sector generally. Non-U.S. 

reinsurers accepting reinsurance premium ceded from U.S. insurers, however, are not subject to 

the same state-based prudential supervision applicable to licensed or accredited U.S. insurers and 

reinsurers. Rather, non-U.S. reinsurers are supervised by the regulatory regime of the applicable 

overseas jurisdiction. Such reinsurers, when doing business with U.S. cedents, have for many 

years been “indirectly” regulated by state laws requiring that in order for cedents to obtain 

“credit for reinsurance” the non-U.S. reinsurer must post 100 percent collateral for all 

reinsurance liabilities assumed from that cedent. Such “credit for reinsurance laws,” which exist 

in every state, are based on the Credit for Reinsurance Model Act and Regulation (“Model Law”) 

of the NAIC, dating to 1984.

Reform efforts — which would consider the efficacy of regulatory supervision in non-U.S. 

jurisdictions by permitting less than 100 percent collateral — have been under consideration by 

the NAIC and various states since at least 2001.98 In December of 2005, the Ad Hoc 

Reinsurance Collateralization Roundtable (formed in 2004 and consisting of nine U.S. insurance 

regulators) presented a report to the NAIC Reinsurance Task Force expressing “substantial 

agreement” that a system for varying the amount of collateral required from unauthorized 

reinsurers according to financial strength and reliability was feasible.99 In 2006, the NAIC 

Reinsurance Task Force published a white paper providing a “balanced synopsis of the historical 

arguments in favor of and against amending U.S. reinsurance collateral requirements,” in order 

to provide that task force with a basis for making further public policy recommendations on the 

issue.100

 95 See Modernization Report at 37 (suggesting that such a covered agreement could be based on the NAIC Credit for 

Reinsurance Model Law and Regulation). 96 31 U.S.C. § 313(r)(2). 97 See section V.D of this Report, further addressing reinsurance collateral reform.

98 In August 2001, the NAIC Reinsurance Task Force issued a statement generally favoring reduced collateral, but 

proposing to revisit the issue in another year. In 2003, the NAIC Insolvency Task Force considered but did not 

recommend establishing an “approved list” of reinsurers approved for reduced collateral. After further 

consideration of the issue, in 2004 the NAIC Reinsurance Task Force deferred deliberations to permit other 

interested parties to work on alternatives for regulatory consideration. See National Association of Insurance 

Commissioners, U.S. Reinsurance Collateral White Paper, 19-21 (March 5, 2006). 99 Id. at 21.

100 Id. at 1.
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In 2008, Florida became the first state to introduce reduced collateral requirements for some 

unauthorized reinsurance, followed in 2011 by New York, Indiana and New Jersey, with 

collateral reform adopted in those states by April 2011. The scope and details of these reforms 

differ in multiple respects, but all permit collateral reduction for some reinsurers accepting 

business ceded from licensed insurers.

In November 2011, the NAIC adopted – through the unanimous approval of state insurance 

regulators – amendments to the Model Law that would permit state regulators discretion to 

designate “certified reinsurers” domiciled in countries determined by the NAIC to be “qualifying 

jurisdictions.”101 Certified reinsurers would be eligible for reduced regulatory collateral 

standards, based on the nature and strength of the regulatory regime in the reinsurer’s home 

jurisdiction and on individualized objective and subjective analysis, including considerations of 

financial strength, credit rating, and reputation.102 The Model Law is not self-executing and does 

not create law in any state. Whether, when, and in what form amendments to the Model Law 

become a law or regulation is a matter for the respective states.103

FIO is authorized to coordinate federal efforts and develop federal policy on prudential aspects 

of international insurance matters. In this role, FIO’s Modernization Report calls for reform to 

afford “nationally uniform treatment of reinsurers with respect to collateral requirements.” 104 

The Modernization Report states Treasury’s concerns regarding implementation of the amended 

Model Law, including:

• A determination by one state within the United States of the adequacy or the equivalence 

of regulation by another nation would not bind other states, possibly resulting in 

frustration of broader U.S. economic or regulatory policy.

• The amended Model Law depends too heavily upon assessments of a reinsurer’s 

creditworthiness by credit rating agencies. A preferable approach would be for other 

risk-based, empirical factors to be the basis upon which to determine the creditworthiness 

of the reinsurer.

• Nineteen additional states105 have now adopted some form of collateral reform based on 

the amended Model Law; among those states, however, authorization to accept less than 

100 percent collateral has not been uniform in the structure or implementation of the state 

law requirements.

Non-U.S. reinsurers argue that collateral requirements restrict the ability to manage risk globally, 

restrict reinsurance capacity in the United States, and thus increase costs for U.S. consumers. 

Non-U.S. reinsurers account for 62 percent or more of reinsurance premiums ceded by U.S.-

 101 See National Association of Insurance Commissioners, Credit for Reinsurance Model Law & Regulation, ST785,786. 102 Id. 

103 By the time the amended Model Law was passed, the NRRA had been enacted as part of the Dodd-Frank Act. 

The NRRA bars states from denying credit for reinsurance in instances where the state in which the ceding 

company is licensed has permitted credit for reinsurance. 104 Modernization Report, 37. 105 That is, in addition to Florida, New York, New Jersey, and Indiana, which – as noted above – had begun 

modernizing credit for reinsurance laws and regulations prior to NAIC adoption of the amended Model Law. The 

number was 18 at the time the Modernization Report was published.
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based insurers.106 Moreover, EU authorities have recently adopted “Solvency II”—a modernized 

insurance regulatory regime which goes into effect in January 2016 and which calls for 

evaluation of regulatory treatment of reinsurers in non-EU jurisdictions. Risk-based regulation 

of reinsurance collateral requirements will improve opportunities for U.S. reinsurers operating in 

the EU.

In formulating federal policy on prudential aspects of international insurance matters, federal 

officials are well-positioned to make determinations regarding whether a foreign jurisdiction has 

sufficiently effective regulation and, in doing so, consider other prudential issues pending in the 

United States and between the United States and affected foreign jurisdictions.107 Accordingly, 

Treasury, together with the United States Trade Representative (USTR), is considering whether 

to include collateral requirements.

108 The covered agreement could have the effect of 

preempting inconsistent state laws.

109

 106 Section VI.B.2.

107 Modernization Report, 38. 108 FIO 2014 Annual Report, 46-47.

109 31 U.S.C. § 313(f) (permitting FIO’s Director to issue a determination that a state insurance law is preempted by 

a covered agreement, in accordance with certain procedures including providing notice and an opportunity for 

public comment).
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VI. GLOBAL REINSURANCE MARKETS

A. The U.S. Insurance Sector as Purchasers of Reinsurance

By premium volume, the United States is the largest single-country insurance market in the 

world, and the business of insurance is a substantial component of the U.S. economy. Domestic 

insurers directly employ approximately 2.3 million people.110 In 2013, U.S. insurers wrote 

approximately $1.3 trillion in total premiums.

111 The U.S. insurance sector reported $5 trillion in 

total assets in 2013.112

Broadly viewed, the two principal sectors of the U.S. primary insurance market are: 

• The Property & Casualty (P/C) Sector. This sector refers generally to insurance products 

offering protection to policyholders for financial loss associated with damage to physical 

property as well as loss from legal liability. The P/C sector in the United States is 

comprised of more than 2,700 insurers of varying size, specialization and geographic

diversity,113 offering products broadly categorized as either personal lines (e.g.,

homeowners or automobile insurance) or commercial lines (e.g., workers’ compensation, 

professional liability, or commercial multi-peril insurance)—each of which accounts for

approximately half of 2013 P/C premiums. In 2013, P/C aggregate direct premiums were 

approximately $544 billion.114

• The Life & Health (L/H) Sector. This sector refers generally to insurance coverage for

losses associated with accidents, death, long-term care, or disability. The sector also 

includes annuity products that create a revenue stream for policyholders (e.g., for 

retirement planning) in addition to providing death benefits. The L/H sector in the 

United States is comprised of approximately 1,000 insurers,

115 and in 2013, L/H sector 

aggregate direct premiums totaled approximately $750 billion.

116 Of this, approximately 

$570 billion arose from life business (including annuity products) and $180 billion from 

A/H business.117

As further described below, U.S. insurers in both of these sectors rely on U.S. and non-U.S.

reinsurers. Measured by total ceded premium, the United States is the largest single-country 

reinsurance market in the world. Roughly half of all reinsurance business originates from North 

America.118

 110 Modernization Report, 1.

111 SNL Financial, LC. 112 SNL Financial, LC (cash and invested assets, exclusive of separate account assets held by L/H insurers). 113 FIO 2014 Annual Report (citing A.M. Best’s Aggregates and Averages (2013)). 

114 FIO 2014 Annual Report. 115 FIO 2014 Annual Report (citing A.M. Best’s Aggregates and Averages (2013)). While the L/H sector includes 

certain accident & health (A/H) coverages, data from firms licensed solely as health insurers or health 

maintenance organizations are separate and not included in this Report. 116 FIO 2014 Annual Report. 117 FIO 2014 Annual Report. 118 Swiss Re, The Essential Guide to Reinsurance, 12 (2012).
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As a commercial activity, reinsurance is usually purchased and sold in private market 

transactions. Through various state and federal programs, however, public entities are or may be 

parties to reinsurance transactions (Box 2). 

Box 2: Examples of Government Programs Associated with

Purchasing or Supplying Reinsurance

The Florida Hurricane Catastrophe Fund (FHCF) is a government-owned reinsurance entity, 

created in 1993 after Hurricane Andrew in order to “protect and advance the state’s interest in 

maintaining insurance capacity in Florida by providing reimbursements to insurers for a portion 

of their catastrophic hurricane losses.”119 The FHCF is structured as a tax-exempt trust fund, 

operated by an agency of the Florida government (State Board of Administration of Florida), and 

provides a backstop to insurers of non-commercial property in Florida.120 The FHCF is partially 

funded through collected premiums, and relies in part on tax-exempt, post-event revenue bonds 

for shortfalls and recapitalization. The bonds are funded by assessments on most lines of P/C 

insurance.121

The California Earthquake Authority (CEA) was established following the 1994 Northridge 

earthquake to address severe reductions in availability of earthquake insurance.122 The CEA 

operates as a publicly managed, privately financed, regulated insurance entity, offering 

earthquake insurance for California residential property. Coverage is not subsidized, and is 

distributed by private insurers that choose to participate in the CEA; funding capital is provided 

by participating insurers, which also retain a specified degree of exposure. The CEA purchases 

reinsurance in the commercial marketplace, including through capital markets.123

The National Flood Insurance Program (NFIP) is a federal program administered by the 

Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA),124 which makes flood insurance (some at 

subsidized rates) available for qualified property. Pursuant to the Biggert-Waters Flood 

Insurance Reform Act of 2012 – which extended the program for five years – the NFIP is 

authorized to “secure reinsurance of coverage provided by the flood insurance program from the 

private market at rates and on terms determined by the Administrator to be reasonable and 

appropriate, in an amount sufficient to maintain the ability of the program to pay claims.”125

 119 About the Florida Hurricane Catastrophe Fund, available at

http://www.sbafla.com/fhcf/AbouttheFHCF/tabid/278/Default.aspx. 120 Fla. Stat. § 215.555 (1993), as amended. 121 Representatives of the reinsurance industry have been critical of Florida’s approach to addressing the cost and 

availability of insurance for hurricane risks, as crowding out private market participation. See Comment in 

response to the FRN on behalf of Reinsurance Association of America, 26 (August 27, 2012). According to 

recent reports, FHCF has been considering whether to obtain support from private reinsurance markets, although 

it appears that no such arrangements were in place prior to the 2014 hurricane season. 122 Further information is available at http://www.earthquakeauthority.com. 123 CEA recently reported payment of over $212 million in reinsurance premiums. California Earthquake Authority, 

Annual Report to the Legislature and Insurance Commissioner on CEA Program Operations, 9 (August 2014). 124 42 U.S.C. § 4011, et seq. 125 Public Law 112-141 § 100232, 126 Stat. 916 (2012). To assist in considering the potential role for reinsurance, 

FEMA is conducting a Flood Insurance Risk Study in furtherance of section 100232(c). See Solicitation Number 

HSFE60-13-Q-0006.
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Other market participants involved in the purchase of reinsurance include reinsurance brokers, 

also known as intermediaries. Reinsurance brokers are licensed by the individual states and 

provide a range of services to insurers, such as assistance in designing and placing reinsurance 

programs as well as offering reinsurance billing and claims services. Reinsurance brokers may 

also provide technical expertise to insurers such as catastrophe modeling and enterprise risk 

management advice. Although some “direct” reinsurers conduct business with cedents without 

using any intermediary, the use of brokers who can access worldwide reinsurance markets is 

common.

B. Global Suppliers of Reinsurance 

The reinsurance industry operates on a cross-border basis from jurisdictions throughout the 

world. The transnational nature of the business of reinsurance serves to diversify exposure to 

risk. Referring to the 2005 hurricane season, which included three major storms causing losses 

in the United States, an IAIS report explained:

Reinsurers contribute to the global diversification of risks and to an efficient 

allocation of capital and improved risk management on the side of primary 

insurers.... Without access to global reinsurance capacity the claims burden 

arising from this exceptional sequence of natural catastrophes would have fallen 

on U.S. domestic (re)insurers and U.S. subsidiaries of non-U.S. parents. The 

access to global reinsurance and the reinsurance recoveries obtained from global 

and domestic reinsurance by primary insurers mitigated the financial impact these 

catastrophes would have had on U.S. primary insurers and by extension also on 

U.S. policyholders.126

This section provides a range of comparative industry data demonstrating the breadth and global 

scope of the reinsurance industry. First, this section presents data addressing various economic 

metrics for the reinsurance industry. It then provides industry data on a geographic basis –

starting with the U.S. reinsurance industry and then turning to non-U.S. reinsurance markets 

which support U.S. insurers. 

A single, standardized source of data regarding the international reinsurance industry does not 

currently exist. This report relies primarily on data published by A.M. Best and Standard & 

Poor’s (credit rating agencies that provide annual and periodic updates on the global insurance 

and reinsurance industries); Aon Benfield and Guy Carpenter (global insurance and reinsurance 

brokers); Swiss Re, Munich Re, the Reinsurance Association of America, and the IAIS.

1. Reinsurance Industry Data

Data regarding the global reinsurance industry both illustrate its breadth and scope and 

demonstrate its importance to the U.S. insurance industry. 

For example, Figure 5 shows the top reinsurance groups, constituting the bulk of the global 

reinsurance market, as compiled by A.M. Best As illustrated in Figure 5, the top five global 

reinsurers account for more than $120 billion of gross premiums written in 2013 (with Munich 

Re and Swiss Re accounting for $71 billion of that figure), with the next 45 largest reinsurance 

groups combined to write approximately $103 billion of gross premium. 

 126 International Association of Insurance Supervisors, Reinsurance and Financial Stability, 8 (2012).
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Figure 5: Top 50 Global Reinsurance Groups (GWP $ millions)

Source: A.M. Best, Global Reinsurance – Segment Review (September 2014) (notes omitted)
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Figure 6 shows the countries and regions most involved in the geographically diffuse reinsurance 

industry. Over 27 percent of worldwide reinsurance premiums are written (assumed) by German 

companies. The London market (including Lloyd’s) represents nearly 9 percent of the market, 

and the rest of Europe accounts for about 10 percent. Bermuda and the Asian Pacific regions 

each represent approximately 11 percent of assumed business, while Switzerland and the 

Americas (United States, Canada, and Latin America) each assume approximately 15.5 percent.

Figure 6: Global Reinsurance – Gross Premiums Written by Region (2013)

NOTE: Region determined by ultimate parent’s domicile. Americas includes U.S., 

Canada and Latin America. Americas GPW includes Berkshire Hathaway 

subsidiaries National Indemnity and General Re Corp.

Source: A.M. Best, Global Reinsurance – Segment Review (September 2014)

As displayed in Figure 7, if only reinsurance of non-life business is considered, the global 

distribution is somewhat different, with the Americas only writing approximately 10 percent of 

worldwide premiums, and Bermuda markets writing roughly 15.5 percent. Both Figure 6 and 

Figure 7 are based on the domicile of the reinsurers’ ultimate parent company.
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Figure 7: Global Reinsurance – Non-Life Gross Premiums Written by Region (2013)

NOTE: Region determined by ultimate parent’s domicile. Americas includes U.S., 

Canada and Latin America. Americas GPW includes Berkshire Hathaway 

subsidiaries National Indemnity and General Re Corp.

Source: A.M. Best, Global Reinsurance – Segment Review (September 2014)

One way to view the global nature of the reinsurance industry is to consider the relative transfer 

of risk between geographic regions. Analysis by the IAIS shows that European insurers and 

reinsurers are “net insurance risk takers,” i.e., these entities assumed $47 billion more in 

reinsurance premium than ceded. In contrast, North American entities ceded $16 billion more 

reinsurance premium than assumed. These data, which demonstrate that reinsurers are 

geographically diverse from the reinsured risks, are displayed in Figure 8.

Figure 8: Risk Transfer Between Regions ($ Billions)

Source: International Association of Insurance Supervisors, Global Insurance Market Report, 20 (2012) (referencing 2011 data)
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The global diversity of reinsurance is not limited to the geographic domicile of reinsurers; as 

Figure 9 illustrates, global reinsurance premiums are widely distributed across sectoral lines of 

business. Property exposures represent the largest share, driven in part by property insurers’

demand for catastrophe protection.

127 

Figure 9: Global Reinsurance Premiums by Sectoral Line of Business

 

Source: International Association of Insurance Supervisors, Global Insurance Market Report (2012) (referencing 2011 data) 

Dedicated reinsurance capital and reinsurance premiums written by the top reinsurers and largest 

reinsurance groups show yet another perspective of the global scope of the reinsurance industry. 

The IAIS has noted that the combined assets of the ten largest reinsurers – which together 

constitute roughly 90 percent of the global L/H market and 50 percent of the non-life market –

are less than the assets of the single top primary insurer. By market capitalization, the entirety of 

the reinsurance industry approximates that of the two top primary insurers.128 Similarly, as 

displayed in Figure 10, the IAIS estimates that worldwide reinsurance premiums (approximately 

$200 billion in all) are two percent of primary life premiums and about nine percent of primary 

non-life premiums; retrocessional premiums (reinsurers’ purchase of further reinsurance), in 

turn, are about $25 billion.129

 127 As shown in Figure 9, a relatively small segment of the reinsurance market relates to “financial” reinsurance

which, in this context, includes reinsurance of the following lines: mortgage guarantee, financial guarantee, 

fidelity, surety, and credit insurance. 128 International Association of Insurance Supervisors, Reinsurance and Financial Stability, 15 (July 19, 2012).

129 Current figures are comparatively larger than the 2010 data illustrated in the IAIS exhibit. Annual gross written 

premium for all direct (primary) lines of insurance is on the order of $4.64 trillion globally. Swiss Re, sigma No. 

03/2014: World Insurance in 2013, 35. According to this source, combined U.S. direct premiums written for life, 

health and property/casualty business in 2013 was on the order of $1.26 trillion. Id. Global reinsurance 

premiums exceed $220 billion. See A. M. Best, Global Reinsurance – Segment Review: How Relevant is the 

Underwriting Cycle (Sept. 2014).
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Figure 10: Global Premium Volume ($ Billions)

Source: International Association of Insurance Supervisors, Reinsurance and Financial Stability, 9 (2012) (referencing 2010 data)

For a variety of reasons relating in part to the timing and manner in which such data are reported 

and published in various jurisdictions, estimates of total capital within the reinsurance industry

vary substantially among sources. In a calculation that provides “a broad measure of capital 

available for insurers to trade risk with and includes both traditional and alternative forms of 

reinsurance capital,” Aon Benfield reports that total global reinsurance capital in 2013 

approximated $540 billion, a figure that includes $50 billion in alternative capital (such as 

catastrophe bonds).130

Global reinsurance capitalization is at record levels, a development that has been accompanied 

by softening of reinsurance premium rates.131 For example, for catastrophe reinsurance, global 

renewal premiums fell 11 percent year-over-year at January 2014,132 and for U.S. catastrophe 

risks, the year-over-year premium reduction was 15 percent. The trend continued with respect to 

 130 Aon Benfield, Reinsurance Market Update (April 1, 2014), available at

http://thoughtleadership.aonbenfield.com/Documents/20140401_analytics_reinsurance_market_outlook_april201

4.pdf. Using a narrower definition, broker Guy Carpenter announced that “dedicated sector capital” at year-end 

2013 was $322 billion. Guy Carpenter & Co., January 2014 Renewal Report: Capacity: Evolution, Innovation 

And Opportunity (January 2014), available at http://www.gccapitalideas.com/2014/01/05/january-2014-renewalreport-capacity-evolution-innovation-and-opportunity/. 131 Press Release, Guy Carpenter & Co., January 1, 2014 Renewals Bring Downward Pressure on Pricing

(December 30, 2013); Standard & Poor’s Rating Service, “Pricing Slides as Reinsurers Strive for Competitive 

Footing,” in Global Reinsurance Highlights 2014, 18 (2014). 132 Guy Carpenter Report (Dec. 29, 2013), available at http://www.gccapitalideas.com/2013/12/29/january-1-2014-

renewals-bring-downward-pressure-on-pricing/.
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reinsurance that renewed in April 2014,133 June 2014, and July 2014,134 and likely will continue 

into 2015.135 In addition to a period of below-average catastrophe losses,136 market capacity 

expansion, including the increased importance of alternative reinsurance options (addressed 

below in section VI.C) and accompanying competition for deployment of reinsurance capital 

partially explain this trend of decreasing reinsurance premiums.137 Analysts have suggested that 

some industry consolidation might occur due to the sector’s current competitive climate.138 Over 

the course of 2014, all of the major rating agencies announced negative outlooks for the

reinsurance industry.139

2. United States Reinsurance Sector

In 2013, the P/C reinsurance market in the United States consisted of about 26 U.S.-based 

reinsurers operating either as individual companies or groups, five of which accounted for more 

than half of the $29.1 billion of net written (assumed) premium.

140 Some of the leading 

reinsurers in the United States (included in the foregoing data) are affiliates of groups 

headquartered overseas. For example, QBE North America is an affiliate of QBE Insurance 

Group Limited (Australia), and Munich Reinsurance America is an affiliate of Munich Re Group 

(Germany). The combined surplus for these 26 reinsurers was $146.2 billion as of year-end 

2013 and $128 billion for 2012.

141 In 2013, $96.3 billion of that surplus was attributable to a 

 133 Guy Carpenter Report (April 9, 2014), available at http://www.gccapitalideas.com/2014/04/09/april-renewalsbring-price-reductions-focus-on-tailored-coverage/; see also Chubb Benefits from Reinsurers’ Pricing Pain 

During April 1 Renewals (April 25, 2014), available at

http://www.snl.com/InteractiveX/article.aspx?ID=27888892&KPLT=4 (“excess supply has driven down prices 

for certain risks”). 134 Guy Carpenter Report (June 2, 2014), available at http://www.gccapitalideas.com/2014/06/02/reinsurancepricing-falls-again-at-june-1-2014-as-competition-heightens/; Standard & Poor’s Ratings Services, Global 

Reinsurance Highlights 2014, 13 (2014). 135 Oliver Suess & Carolyn Bandel, Worst Market in Memory to Weigh on Reinsurance Rates, Bloomberg 

(September 3, 2014). 136 E.g., Property Claims Service, PCS Q3 2014 Catastrophe Review(October 2014), available at

http://www.verisk.com/pcs/14Q3-Cat-Review.pdf?utm_campaign=&utm_medium=email&utm_source=Eloqua. 137 Insurance Journal, P/C Reinsurance Market Softer Due to Alternative Capital (March 14, 2014), available at

http://www.insurancejournal.com/news/national/2014/03/14/323319.htm (according to Towers Perrin survey, 

“CFOs attribute this [reinsurance premium] softness primarily to the significant growth of insurance-linked 

securities [ILS] and other alternative forms of reinsurance capital”). See also Aon Benfield, The Aon Benfield 

Aggregate – Results for the Full Year Ended December 31, 2013, 5, 8, 19. 138 See A.M. Best Says Sector Stable, Carrier Management (Jan. 22, 2014) (citing Standard & Poor’s Briefing), 

available at http://www.carriermanagement.com/news/2014/01/22/117972.htm. See also Best’s Briefing, Global 

Re Outlook Remains Stable (Jan. 2, 2014) (“in the supply/demand equation, too much capital chasing the same 

opportunities has put pressure on reinsurance pricing, terms and conditions”); Carrier Management, Falling 

Prices Advantage Large Reinsurers, Pressure Smaller Firms (Feb. 27, 2014), available at 

http://www.carriermanagement.com/news/2014/02/26/119085.htm; Best’s Special Report, Could 2013 Be The 

Apex of the Next Few Years? (April 4, 2014); Standard & Poor’s, “Tough Competition Could Put Ratings on 

Global Reinsurers Under Pressure,” in Global Reinsurance Highlights 2014, 62 (2014).

139 Guy Carpenter Strategic Advisory Update, Reinsurers Ratings Challenged with Negative Sector Outlook

(September 15, 2014), available at http://www.gccapitalideas.com/2014/09/15/gc-strategic-advisory-updatereinsurers-ratings-challenged-with-negative-sector-outlook. 140 Reinsurance Association of America, Reinsurance Underwriting Review: A Financial Review of U.S. Reinsurers, 

2013 Industry Results 1, 10 (2014) (based on criteria that include U.S. reinsurance organizations that have in 

excess of $10 million of unaffiliated reinsurance premium and $50 million of PHS). 141 Id. at 1, 3.
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single company, National Indemnity Company, which is a subsidiary of Berkshire Hathaway, 

Inc.142 

In recent years the share of premium ceded by U.S. insurers to non-U.S. reinsurers has been 

increasing steadily. As seen in Figure 11, the share of premiums ceded by U.S. insurers to U.S.-

based reinsurers declined fairly uniformly from 61 percent in 1997 to only 38 percent in 2013.

143 

Figure 11: Market Share of U.S. and Non-U.S. Reinsurers (U.S. Cessions)

Source: Reinsurance Association of America, Offshore Reinsurance in the U.S. Market: 2013 Data (2014)

When the countries of the reinsurers’ ultimate parent companies are taken into consideration, the 

importance of the global reinsurance market to U.S. ceding companies is even more evident. 

Reinsurers owned by groups headquartered or domiciled outside the United States accounted for 

approximately 92 percent of reinsurance premiums ceded by U.S.-based insurers in 2013.

144 

Other than U.S. subsidiaries of offshore companies, a new U.S.-domiciled reinsurer has not been 

formed in over two decades.145

 142 Id. at 11. 143 Reinsurance Association of America, Offshore Reinsurance in the U.S. Market: 2013 Data, 13 (2014). The 

analysis, based on annual statutory financial statements of licensed U.S. insurers, compares U.S. premiums ceded 

to U.S. professional reinsurance companies, to the U.S. premiums ceded to non-U.S. reinsurers. 144 Id at 14. The Reinsurance Association of America states that certain aspects of the U.S. regulatory system have 

contributed to the observed shift of premiums ceded by U.S. primary insurers from U.S.-based to offshore

reinsurers. Comment in Response to the FRN on behalf of Reinsurance Association of America, 8 (August 27, 

2012). 145 Comment in response to the FRN on behalf of Reinsurance Association of America, 9, 17 (August 27, 2012).
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The U.S. life reinsurance market is led by a relatively few global reinsurers. In October 2013,

SCOR SE, a French-based reinsurance group, completed its acquisition of Generali’s U.S. life 

reinsurance operations, giving SCOR SE the largest share of life reinsurance business in the 

United States.

146 Other major participants assuming U.S. life reinsurance business include 

Reinsurance Group of America, Inc. (RGA), Swiss Reinsurance Co. Ltd., and Munich 

Reinsurance Co. In 2012, these reinsurers comprised 83 percent of the life reinsurance market 

for U.S. risks.147 Of the four, RGA is the only life reinsurer primarily headquartered at the group 

level in the United States. 

In sum, non-U.S. reinsurers play an integral role in the U.S. insurance market. Today, non-U.S. 

and foreign-controlled companies assume the majority of premiums ceded by U.S. insurers.

3. Non-U.S. Reinsurance Sector

With more than 200 companies offering reinsurance throughout the world,148 the global 

reinsurance market is robust and provides important support to U.S. insurers. Of the 

$28.4 billion in U.S. premiums ceded to non-U.S. companies in 2013, most were assumed by 

reinsurers in seven jurisdictions: Bermuda ($9.7 billion), United Kingdom ($4.8 billion), 

Germany ($3.7 billion), Cayman Islands ($3.3 billion), Switzerland ($1.4 billion), Channel 

Islands ($1.3 billion), and Turks & Caicos ($1.0 billion).149 

a. Europe 

Five of the six largest reinsurance groups in the world, by premium volume, are based in Europe: 

Munich Reinsurance Co., Swiss Reinsurance Co. Ltd., Hannover Rueckversicherung AG, SCOR 

SE and the Lloyd’s market. The combined net L/H and P/C premiums written by these 

reinsurers were approximately $107 billion on a group basis in 2013.150 The largest reinsurance 

jurisdictions within Europe, by net reinsurance premiums written and the domicile of the 

individual legal entity reinsurer, are Germany ($52.3 billion), United Kingdom ($13.5 billion), 

Switzerland ($15.5 billion), Ireland ($8.6 billion), and France ($7.9 billion).151

b. Bermuda 

Unlike the European reinsurance market, which has existed for more than a century, the 

development and expansion of the Bermuda reinsurance industry is more recent. Bermuda did 

not experience noticeable growth in the traditional reinsurance market until the late 20th

 146 David Bruggeman, Results of the 2012 SOA Life Reinsurance Survey, Reinsurance News (Society of Actuaries), 

Issue 76, 7 (July 2013). Generali U.S. Branch is an affiliate of Assicurazioni Generali, S.p.A., an Italian 

insurance group. 147 Id. 

148 Swiss Re, The Essential Guide to Reinsurance, 12 (2013). There are also thousands of small reinsurers, 

including captives, affiliated, and special purpose reinsurers in 110 jurisdictions worldwide. The vast majority of 

these companies assume premium from U.S. ceding insurers of less than $10 million annually. Reinsurance 

Association of America, Offshore Reinsurance in the U.S. Market: 2014 Data, 2-4 and Appendix B, C (2014).

149 Reinsurance Association of America, Offshore Reinsurance in the U.S. Market: 2013 Data, 4, 6 (2014). 

In addition, reinsurers in the British Virgin Islands, Ireland, and Barbados assumed between $450 million and 

$700 million in reinsurance premium, respectively. All figures disregard transactions with affiliated companies. 150 Standard & Poor’s Ratings Services, Global Reinsurance Highlights 2014, 76 (2014). 151 Id. at 78-95.
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century.152 Since then, Bermuda has emerged as an important domicile for reinsurers, with a 

substantial concentration of capital and reinsurance-related resources. A recent industry report 

noted: “Among other things, Bermuda offers relatively quick regulatory approval to launch 

operations (a few weeks), favorable tax laws (zero corporate income tax), and proximity to the 

United States, the largest reinsurance market in the world (650 miles off the coast of North 

Carolina).”153

The growth of the Bermuda reinsurance market has reflected the cyclical nature of the overall 

reinsurance market. Bermuda has attracted new market entrants during cycles when worldwide 

reinsurance capital was low and prices for reinsurance had increased. In 1992, for example, a 

number of new reinsurers were organized in Bermuda to take advantage of high demand and 

favorable reinsurance prices following Florida’s devastating Hurricane Andrew. Additional

growth spurts, which occurred in waves following major loss-making disasters, have accentuated 

an overall upward trend in the number of new reinsurers and reinsurance affiliates in Bermuda 

throughout the last two decades. 

According to the Standard & Poor’s analysis of 2013 data, Bermuda hosts 15 of the world’s 

largest reinsurance groups, as measured by net reinsurance premiums, including two in the top 

ten (PartnerRe Ltd. and Everest Reinsurance Co.).154 As of 2013, Bermuda-based reinsurers 

held approximately 8 percent of the global reinsurance market, doubling the share from 4 percent 

a decade earlier.155 Gross premiums written by Bermuda reinsurers reached $76 billion in 2013; 

a third of this business is property (including property catastrophe).156 The bulk of Bermuda 

insurance and reinsurance premiums (roughly half of GWP) are generated from North American 

risks.157

c. Asia-Pacific 

Although not as large as European reinsurance groups, Asia-Pacific reinsurers are nonetheless 

key participants in the international arena. Seven of the world’s largest reinsurance groups are 

based in the Asia-Pacific region.158 In 2013 these reinsurers combined to assume almost $19 

billion in net written premiums. The Asia-Pacific reinsurance market is largely driven by 

 152 J. David Cummins, The Bermuda Insurance Market: An Economic Analysis, 7 (May 6, 2008). Growth of 

Bermuda as an insurance center expanded following its adoption of Insurance Act 1978, Consolidated Laws of 

Bermuda. 153 Deloitte, Bermuda Insurance Market Report 2014, 1 (2014), available at http://www.deloitte.com/assets/DcomBermuda/Local%20Assets/Documents/DELOITTE%20BERMUDA%20INSURANCE%20MARKET%20REPO

RT%202014-1.pdf. 154 Standard & Poor’s Ratings Services, Global Reinsurance Highlights 2014, 76 (2014). For a summary of the 

Bermuda supervisory regime, see International Association of Insurance Supervisors, Reinsurance and Financial 

Stability, Appendix A1.1 at 37-38 (July 19, 2012). 155 Deloitte, Bermuda Market Report 2014, 1 (2014). The Market Report tracks 20 Bermuda (re)insurance groups, 

with total capital and surplus ranging from $529 million to $29 billion. 156 Deloitte & Standard and Poor’s, Bermuda Market Report 2014, 3 - 4 (2014).

157 Id. 158 Standard & Poor’s Ratings Services, Global Reinsurance Highlights 2014, 76 (2014). This analysis excludes 

China Reinsurance (Group) Corporation, which both S&P and A.M. Best list as the eighth largest reinsurance 

group in the world. A.M. Best, Global Reinsurance – Segment Review: How Relevant is the Underwriting Cycle, 

13 (September 2014). 
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reinsurers domiciled in Japan ($10.89 billion), Korea ($3.57 billion), India ($2.21 billion), and 

Australia ($1.77 billion).159 

Despite significant losses following the 2011 catastrophes, including the Tohoku earthquake and 

tsunami in Japan and the Christchurch earthquake in New Zealand, Asia-Pacific reinsurers 

largely replenished capital and maintained strong credit ratings.160 Asia-Pacific reinsurers likely 

will continue to seek risk in the United States and other areas of the world to complement and 

diversify risk portfolios, particularly in light of various regional factors currently presenting 

challenges to the industry (e.g., consolidation of regional insurers and slowing growth rates in 

developing markets).161 

C. Increasing Capital Markets Convergence With Reinsurance 

The reinsurance market typically operates through the traditional structure in which one or more

reinsurers assume a portion of an insurer’s risk in return for a specified premium. In recent 

years, however, managers of hedge funds, pension funds, and other equity funds (collectively 

referred to herein as “capital markets”) have increasingly looked to the reinsurance market as a 

means of diversifying portfolios, capitalizing on cyclical trends in reinsurance pricing, and 

improving investment yield.

Capital markets may be attracted to the reinsurance business partly because of the low 

correlation between investment risk and underwriting risk. Underwriting results of reinsurers 

generally do not track the investment returns of broader financial markets—the influence of 

natural disasters on the value of equity markets, corporate bonds, and other financial 

investments, for example, is uncorrelated to the effect of such events on insurers.162 

Alternative reinsurance solutions may be employed to protect cedents against a variety of risks, 

but these instruments have primarily been geared toward property catastrophe risks, which offer 

a relatively short time horizon to maturity, allowing investors to participate in contracts of a few 

years or less and evaluate returns soon after contract expiration.

163 Furthermore, alternative 

reinsurance augments existing traditional property catastrophe reinsurance capacity, which 

typically requires dedication of a large amount of capital during a short period. Property 

catastrophe models have developed to a point where capital markets are able to assess the levels 

of assumed natural disaster risk with sufficient reliability.164 

The nature of investors comprising this capital market is varied. One report states that over half 

of the capital supporting alternative reinsurance originates from “pension funds, endowments and 

sovereign wealth funds, generally through specialized insurance-linked investment funds.”165 

 159 Standard & Poor’s Ratings Services, Global Reinsurance Highlights 2014, 78-95 (2014).

160 A.M. Best, Global Reinsurance – Segment Review: How Relevant is the Underwriting Cycle, 19-21(Sept. 2014).

161 Id.

162 Bernard Van der Stichele, Some Reflections on the ILS Market from an Institutional Investor Perspective, 

Alternative Reinsurance Strategies, 258 (2012). 163 J. David Cummins, The Bermuda Insurance Market: An Economic Analysis, 44 (May 6, 2008). 164 Bernard Van der Stichele, Some Reflections on the ILS Market from an Institutional Investor Perspective, 

Alternative Reinsurance Strategies, 260-61 (2012); Angelo John Lewis, What’s Behind the Cat Bond Craze

(A.M. Best 2014) (advances in catastrophe modeling among factors driving increased cat bond investments and 

increased used of indemnity triggers in these instruments). 165 Michael J. Millette, Convergence at High Noon: Catastrophe Risk in the Capital Markets in 2012, 6, in 

Alternative (Re)insurance Strategies (Morton Lane, ed., 2012).
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Over a quarter of the capital comes from hedge funds and private equity funds, while about 10

percent emanates from reinsurers looking for an alternative avenue to obtain returns.166 

1. Types of Alternative Reinsurance 

Alternative reinsurance instruments take a number of forms, including those described below.

• Catastrophe (Cat) Bond – A cat bond is a structured debt instrument that transfers risk 

from a sponsor (i.e., an insurer) to investors (i.e., the capital markets) under terms and 

conditions similar to a reinsurance contract.167 To create a cat bond, an insurer 

establishes a special purpose vehicle (SPV) that issues notes to investors. The notes 

contain conditions similar to a reinsurance contract, so that default on the bond would 

result under circumstances which would be loss-making under a typical reinsurance 

catastrophe contract.168 Funds raised by investors are managed by the SPV in a 

segregated collateral account which is available to pay the sponsoring company in the 

event of a loss. If an event does not occur, the premium paid to the SPV by the sponsor, 

the principal on the note, and investment income earned thereon are returned to the 

investors.169 A cat bond’s trigger may take various forms, such as an indemnity trigger 

(i.e., the actual incurred loss of the sponsor), a parametric trigger (i.e., a description of the 

physical characteristics of the catastrophe), or an industry loss trigger (i.e., the amount of 

insured loss incurred by the industry).170 Of these, an indemnity trigger is now by far the 

most common.

• Sidecar – A sidecar is a temporary reinsurance vehicle that shares premiums and losses 

exclusively with an insurer primarily on a pro-rata basis, generally for business 

associated with catastrophe risk. Formation of a sidecar involves a number of different 

parties. A sponsor, either an insurer or, in the case of a retrocession, a reinsurer, will 

establish a company (the sidecar) for a limited purpose and duration.171 The sidecar may 

be financed by debt and equity through third party investors (i.e., capital markets). The 

proceeds from the debt, equity, and premiums ceded by the sponsor are placed in a trust 

account as collateral for losses that may arise under ceded insurance policies.172 

• Industry Loss Warranty (ILW) – An ILW is a contract that provides coverage for an 

insurer if the industry-wide insurance loss from an event satisfies a pre-determined 

condition.173 The insurer’s own loss will usually also be required to trigger payment 

under an ILW contract. 

 166 Id.

167 A.M. Best Methodology, Rating Natural Catastrophe Bonds, 1 (August 23, 2012).

168 Id. 169 Id. 

170 RMS, Cat Bonds Demystified: RMS Guide to the Asset Class, 5-6 (2012). 171 Marcelo Ramella and Leila Madeiros, Bermuda Sidecars: Supervising Reinsurance Companies in Innovative 

Global Markets, in The Geneva Papers on Risk and Insurance – Issues and Practice, 349 (2007). 172 Id. at 351. 173 Ali Ishaq, Reinsuring for Catastrophes through Industry Loss Warranties – A Practical Approach, Casualty 

Actuarial Society Forum, 76 (Spring 2005), available at

http://www.casact.org/pubs/forum/05spforum/05spf075.pdf.
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• Collateralized Reinsurance – Collateralized reinsurance is a fully collateralized

insurance-linked security that can be tailored to supplement the terms and conditions of a 

traditional reinsurance contract. The collateral, posted by investors, is equal to the 

coverage limits of the reinsurance net of the premium. The collateral is held in a separate 

account to satisfy losses due to the ceding insurer; the reinsurance premiums constitute 

the investor’s return.

174 

Similar to traditional reinsurance solutions, alternative reinsurance instruments offer a variety of 

benefits to cedents (and retrocedents), such as providing an element of diversification to an 

insurer’s reinsurance portfolio. In addition, the collateralization of a cat bond helps reduce credit 

risk and enhances predictability of reinsurance costs since the bond terms typically last several 

years.175 A sidecar may be used to provide an additional source of reinsurance to an insurer 

when the reinsurance market has limited capital (e.g., following a natural disaster) and therefore 

allows an insurer to write more business during a time when rates are high.176 An ILW offers 

low transaction costs because the payout is linked to an industry loss figure, not the specific 

portfolio of an insurer; and thus an ILW may offer a more affordable solution to catastrophe 

protection.177 Collateralized reinsurance allows non-traditional reinsurers to efficiently offer 

additional capacity for catastrophe loss, often on a retrocession basis.178

2. Development of the Alternative Reinsurance Market

The alternative reinsurance market gained popularity during the 2000s when insurers (and 

reinsurers) sought additional ways to protect against increasing losses from catastrophes. During 

a time when equity markets and other reinsurers were infusing capital into new unaffiliated and 

affiliated reinsurance companies, insurers were also looking to alternative reinsurance 

instruments as an additional avenue for capacity and diversification. This sector has continued to 

expand, even as market capacity has increased and rates have declined.179 One industry analyst 

recently noted: “Reinsurers will continue to incorporate the competitive strengths of alternative 

capital flows into their capital and organizations through (i) sponsorship of catastrophe bonds to 

lower their cost of underwriting capital supporting tail risks; (ii) sponsorship of sidecars to lower 

their cost of underwriting capital throughout their underwriting risk distribution; and (iii) 

formation of insurance-linked securities and collateralized reinsurance fund management 

units.”180

 174 J. David Cummins, The Bermuda Insurance Market: An Economic Analysis, 44 (May 6, 2008). 175 Id. 

176Marcelo Ramella and Leila Madeiros, Bermuda Sidecars: Supervising Reinsurance Companies in Innovative 

Global Markets, in The Geneva Papers on Risk and Insurance – Issues and Practice, 351-52 (2007). 177 Ali Ishaq, Reinsuring for Catastrophes through Industry Loss Warranties – A Practical Approach, Casualty 

Actuarial Society Forum, 4 (Spring 2005), available at

http://www.casact.org/pubs/forum/05spforum/05spf075.pdf. 178 Michael J. Millette, Convergence at High Noon: Catastrophe Risk in the Capital Markets in 2012, 15, in 

Alternative (Re)insurance Strategies (Morton Lane, ed., 2012).

179 Standard & Poor’s, A Record Volume of Catastrophe Bonds Highlights Increasing Competition in The InsuranceLinked Securities Market, in Global Reinsurance Highlights 2014, 32 (September 2014). 180 Aon Benfield, Reinsurance Market Update (April 1, 2014), available at

http://thoughtleadership.aonbenfield.com/Documents/20140401_analytics_reinsurance_market_outlook_april201

4.pdf. See also Artemis, Insurance-linked Securities Capacity Here to Stay: Hiscox CEO & Chairman (July 21, 

2013), available at http://www.artemis.bm/blog/2013/07/31/insurance-linked-securities-capacity-here-to-stay-
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In the wake of the September 11th attacks, the total amount of cat bonds outstanding in 2002 was 

$2.9 billion. Hurricanes Katrina, Rita, and Wilma in 2005 brought further interest in alternative 

products. By 2008, the total amount of cat bonds outstanding had reached $16 billion.181 

Sidecar reinsurance capacity has also grown over time, from just over $1 billion in the period 

between 1999 and 2001 to over $7 billion in the period between 2005 and 2007.182 In 2009, nontraditional reinsurance collectively was about $20 billion in total capacity.

183 More recently, 

growth in this segment has been driven by “investors ... looking for better-than-average returns 

in the short term,” rather than insurers seeking solutions for post-catastrophe capacity issues.184

Figure 12: Growth of Cat Bonds

Source: Guy Carpenter, Capital Markets: The Reinsurance Evolution Continues (September 2014)

 

hiscox-ceo-chairman/ (both the chairman and CEO of Bermuda-based Hiscox group see “insurance-linked 

securities (ILS) capacity as a permanent and growing feature of the wider insurance and reinsurance market”). 181 Aon Benfield, Insurance-Linked Securities: Evolving Strength 2012, 15 (2012). Note that following 2008, cat 

bond volumes dipped “due to the higher notional amount of catastrophe bonds reaching maturity . . . and lower 

issuance volume following the global financial crisis.” Id. at 6. 182 Id. at 22. Sidecar issuance decreased significantly in 2008 and 2009 before rebounding in 2011. Id.

183 Aon Benfield, Reinsurance Market Outlook: Post Convergence – The Next USD100 Billion (Sept. 2013), 5. 

Industry data for this sector are approximate and consist in some measure of estimates, because many of these 

transactions are private placements and not easily tracked. 184 A. M. Best’s, Third-Party Capital – Industry Implications, in Global Reinsurance – Segment Review

(September 2014), 6.
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In recent years, the non-traditional reinsurance market has continued to evolve, and it is now a 

standard consideration for many reinsurance buyers. Broker Guy Carpenter estimates a total of 

$20.5 billion in cat bonds outstanding as of mid-2014 (Figure 12). In the first quarter of 2014, 

sponsors issued $1.6 billion of insurance-linked securities, primarily cat bonds, which was a 

record amount for a single quarter.

185 The second-quarter set another new record, with the 

issuance of $4.6 billion in cat bonds.186 Insurance-linked securities investments for calendar 

year 2014 are on track to set a new annual record.187

Although cat bonds and other P/C insurance financing vehicles are the most common form of 

insurance-linked securities, life insurers have also participated in this market. Prior to the 

financial crisis, life insurers used insurance-linked securities mainly to manage statutory capital 

and reserve requirements. Principal and interest obligations on these securities were often 

guaranteed by a single financial guarantor. During the crisis, some of those guarantors 

encountered credit problems, resulting in lower use of insurance-linked securities by life insurers 

post-crisis. More recently, several insurers and reinsurers have sponsored the issuance of excess 

mortality bonds,

188 while others have used alternative markets to transfer longevity risk or 

monetize expected emergence of profits on defined blocks of business.189 

The growth of alternative risk transfer markets extends interconnections between the insurance 

and reinsurance sector and capital markets. While such instruments serve the economic function 

of expanding markets for catastrophe and other insurance risks, exposure to such risks could be 

problematic for unsophisticated investors. These instruments have been described as 

increasingly mainstream products,190 although the long-term commitment of non-traditional 

capital sources has not yet been tested. As some analysts have noted, very few cat bonds to date 

have experienced major losses.191

 185 Willis Capital Markets & Advisory, ILS Market Update: Declining Spreads & Flexibility in Structuring

(April 2014), available at

http://www.willis.com/documents/publications/Services/Capital_Markets/20140407_WCMA_April_ILS_Market

_Update.pdf. 186 Standard & Poor’s, A Record Volume of Catastrophe Bonds Highlights Increasing Competition in The InsuranceLinked Securities Market, in Global Reinsurance Highlights 2014, 32 (September 2014). 187 Carrier Management, Insurance-Linked Securities on Track to Break Issuance Record (October 20, 2014) (based 

on estimates by Willis Capital Markets & Advisory). 188 See Swiss Re Obtains USD 275 Million of Extreme Mortality Protection from the Capital Markets through its 

Vita Programme (July 31, 2012) available at

http://www.swissre.com/media/news_releases/nr_120730_extreme_mortality_protection_vita_programme.html; 

Shankar Ramakrishnan & Joy Wiltermuth, Extreme Mortality Bond Testing Investor View on Pandemic Risk, 

Reuters (October 20, 2014), available at http://www.reuters.com/article/2014/10/20/mortality-bond-ebolaidUSL2N0SC1E820141020. 189 See Mark Cobley, Deutsche Agrees Record Longevity Swap Deal, (Feb. 17, 2012), available at

http://www.efinancialnews.com/story/2012-02-17/aegon-longevity-swap; Vecta I Ltd. Embedded Value Life 

Insurance Securitization Completes at C$120m (Dec. 16, 2011), available at

http://www.artemis.bm/blog/2011/12/16/vecta-i-ltd-embedded-value-life-securitization-deal-launched/. 190 “Once the domain of specialty funds narrowly focused on insurance-linked debt, cat bonds have become an 

alternative for traditional corporate bond managers as they seek higher returns.” Wall Street Journal Money Beat, 

Record “Cat Bond” Grows Again, Cuts Insurer’s Costs (April 24, 2014), available at

http://blogs.wsj.com/moneybeat/2014/04/24/record-cat-bond-grows-again-cuts-insurers-costs/. 191 “I think there’s a certain amount of complacency out there right now ... there haven’t been any significant events 

in highly cat bond exposed areas, like a Florida cat event.” Angelo John Lewis, What’s Behind the Cat Bond 

Craze (A.M. Best 2014) (quoting officer from reinsurance broker, Holborn). See FIO 2014 Annual Report, 32 
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VII. CONCLUSION

The strength and viability of both the insurance and reinsurance sectors are vitally important to 

the United States, which is the largest single-country insurance market in the world. As 

authorized under the Dodd-Frank Act, FIO monitors the insurance industry and has produced this 

Report regarding “the breadth and scope of the global reinsurance market and the critical role 

such market plays in supporting insurance in the United States.”192

While this Report does not analyze the extent to which reinsurance or any particular reinsurer 

could be systemically important, the business of reinsurance is global in scope, and serves 

multiple important purposes within the U.S. insurance sector. The global reinsurance market

provides access to the financial strength of reinsurers and to alternative risk transfer capital, 

thereby assisting insurers in preparing for and responding to catastrophes and natural disasters. 

In addition, reinsurers assist insurers in stabilizing underwriting experience, increasing 

underwriting capacity, and facilitating entrance to and exit from markets, thereby helping

insurers maintain product pricing that is more available and affordable, which benefits the U.S. 

economy as a whole. Reinsurers also promote capital allocation among affiliates and address 

risk diversification. In light of the importance of the global reinsurance market to U.S. insurers, 

and for other reasons described in this Report, Treasury and USTR are considering a covered 

agreement with respect to collateral requirements for reinsurers.

The majority of unaffiliated reinsurance purchased by U.S. insurers is obtained from non-U.S. 

reinsurers. The traditional reinsurance market is now supplemented with capital from alternative 

sources, which has created a growing range of risk transfer sources for insurance companies, 

such as catastrophe bonds and collateralized reinsurance. As this Report describes, the global 

reinsurance market provides an essential backstop and various risk and capital management 

mechanisms for insurance in the United States.

 

(“the long term commitment of these non-traditional capital sources has not been tested”); Best’s News Service, 

William R. Berkley Questions “Moral Commitment” of Alternative Capital (October 20, 2014).

192 31 U.S.C. § 313(o)(1).