Premiums face upward pressure – Morgan Stanley

With July renewals just around the corner, it is a busier time than usual for insurance companies. Now insurers in Australia have one more thing to think about, if insights from Morgan Stanley are anything to go by.

Analysts of the investment bank, according to a report by Reinsurance News, are pointing to a likely rise in reinsurance prices, given factors such as the country’s increased losses from natural catastrophes as well as the complications brought about by the coronavirus crisis amid already existing pricing momentum.

IAG and Suncorp have been cited as major reinsurance buyers, whose portfolios are predominantly Australia-based and are more exposed to single catastrophe events, compared to QBE which relies on reinsurance as well but is more global.  

Meanwhile it was also highlighted that reinsurance recoveries have made up 93% of reinsurance expenses in the past 12 months. Add to that reinsurance hardening, not only in Australia but internationally.