In the investment banker ‘101’ playbook for cyclical industries the reinsurance industry has arrived at the page marked ‘weak pricing due to too much competition; sell M&A services to our clients’. This, if you are a banker, can be a very nice place to be. Less so
Read more →On the 20th January, S&P announced that – for the first time since 2006 – it expects a negative trend in reinsurer ratings in 2014. Of the 23 groups (including ‘Lloyd’s) it defines as ‘global reinsurers’ it notes that ‘nearly half’ are materially exposed to the competition
Read more →During the summer both A.M. Best and Fitch assigned ‘positive’ outlooks to their current Lloyd’s market ratings. S&P did so last year. Translating the A.M. Best rating scale to the one used by S&P and Fitch this means that Lloyd’s is rated ‘A+’ with a positive outlook
Read more →The late ‘80’s was a very particular time and place in the City of London. ‘Big Bang’ and the Lawson boom set the tone for the UK’s financial centre’s own version of American Yuppiedom. Mobile phones the size of bricks, red braces, big hair, cocktails of dubious
Read more →