{"id":1960,"date":"2025-08-21T11:00:29","date_gmt":"2025-08-21T11:00:29","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.xinetica.com\/?p=1960"},"modified":"2025-08-21T14:29:47","modified_gmt":"2025-08-21T14:29:47","slug":"balance-of-power-slowly-shifting-back-towards-buyers-ahead-of-jan-26-renewals-antares-ceo","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.xinetica.com\/index.php\/2025\/08\/21\/balance-of-power-slowly-shifting-back-towards-buyers-ahead-of-jan-26-renewals-antares-ceo\/","title":{"rendered":"Balance of power \u2018slowly shifting back towards buyers\u2019 ahead of Jan \u201926 renewals: Antares CEO"},"content":{"rendered":"

Mike van der Straaten, Chief Executive Officer of Antares Global, a provider of insurance and reinsurance capacity, has said that the balance of power is shifting back towards buyers of reinsurance, with greater competition and gradually returning capacity poised to put downward pressure on rates ahead of the January 1st, 2026, renewals.<\/p>\n

\"MichaelOverall, Antares Global is anticipating stability in the reinsurance market at 1.1, and expects sellers to maintain pricing discipline in spite of heightened competition as capacity returns, which will apply downward pressure on property and property catastrophe rates.<\/p>\n

“As capital availability expands, cedents may benefit from modest improvements in terms\u2014particularly for non-peak zone risks\u2014though sustaining price adequacy will be more challenging in a competitive environment. While reinsurers remain selective in their risk appetite, the balance of power is slowly shifting back towards buyers. Assuming loss activity remains within model expectations, a gradual easing of terms in the cat market is likely,” said the CEO.<\/p>\n

In the property retrocession market, which van der Straaten describes as buyer-friendly after some significant softening in 2025, supply remains constrained but demand is still robust as a result of inflation and growing cat exposures.<\/p>\n

“Overall, conditions point to competitive pricing and accessible retro protection, with stable pricing and steady capacity expected in 2026 unless major catastrophes or capital withdrawals occur,” said van der Straaten.<\/p>\n

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Regular readers will be aware that the casualty market has been in focus in recent years, with some hefty reserving announced by some major carriers. While this has focused on the 2019 and prior underwriting years, van der Straaten notes that the more recent, so-called good years are also under scrutiny.<\/p>\n

“Competition for business and strong cedent relationships have limited reinsurers\u2019 ability to push ceding commissions, a dynamic likely to continue unless casualty capacity tightens,” he explained.<\/p>\n

Commenting on the specialty market landscape, the CEO highlights several challenges ahead of the 1.1 renewals, including for aviation risks, where reinsurers are pushing for transparency around exposure accumulation and clear war exclusion. There’s been a couple of high-profile aviation losses in 2025, and coupled with the Russia\/Ukraine situation, some have suggested market hardening could occur.<\/p>\n

“Stronger risk controls, clearer policy wordings, and coordinated responses to geopolitical conflicts are critical, alongside improved data sharing and proactive claims management,” said van der Straaten.<\/p>\n

Within cyber re\/insurance, the CEO underlines that market slowdown does mitigate growth, and emphasises the potential challenges of systemic risk and aggregation.<\/p>\n

“Reinsurers can respond with tighter coverage terms, disciplined pricing, real-time threat monitoring, and ongoing innovation in cyber modelling to manage portfolio volatility,” he said.<\/p>\n

The geopolitical environment remains uncertain, and while political violence products are adapting to volatile conditions, van der Straaten notes that reinsurance companies are looking for improved scenario modelling, clearer war-on-territory exclusions, as well as stricter underwriting in unstable regions.<\/p>\n

The tariff situation is also unclear, and van der Straaten notes that higher tariffs coupled with supply chain disruptions increase risk in trade credit, political risk, and marine cargo lines of business, all of which is prompting reinsurers to monitor both accumulations and capacity, while underlining the importance of underwriting discipline and “long-term sustainability over short-term premium gains.”<\/p>\n

“Longer-term, persistent inflation, geopolitical instability, and rising protectionism may create capital market volatility and impact investment returns, insured values, and loss costs. In the cat market, climate change and secondary perils remain a priority, with exposure to systemic risks in supply chains and infrastructure likely to surprise markets unprepared for sudden shifts in frequency or severity,” concluded the CEO.<\/p>\n

Ahead of the busy conference season, when conversations and negotiations for the January renewals start to take shape, re\/insurance market dynamics appear more balanced. Of course, there’s still some time until the end of the year and we’ve yet to reach the peak of the Atlantic hurricane season so, as ever, there’s potential for shifts ahead of 1.1.<\/p>\n

The post Balance of power ‘slowly shifting back towards buyers’ ahead of Jan ’26 renewals: Antares CEO<\/a> appeared first on ReinsuranceNe.ws<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Mike van der Straaten, Chief Executive Officer of Antares Global, a provider of insurance and reinsurance capacity, has said that […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":1962,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[14],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.xinetica.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1960"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.xinetica.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.xinetica.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.xinetica.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.xinetica.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1960"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"http:\/\/www.xinetica.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1960\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1964,"href":"http:\/\/www.xinetica.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1960\/revisions\/1964"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.xinetica.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1962"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.xinetica.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1960"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.xinetica.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1960"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.xinetica.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1960"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}