Overview

2009 was a year with limited U.S. hurricane losses, and relatively few events affecting the reinsurance market worldwide. This has helped produce strong earnings to reinsurers, whose loss ratios have a 6%-9% benefit from this good experience, relative to long-term averages.

To review the history of large market losses, we created a consistent 25-year database of events with the same relative amount of insured losses. This data shows U.S. hurricane exposure as the key driver of worldwide reinsurance experience, and thus market pricing. However, there are no significant trends in the number or relative size of market losses over this time.


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