Tremor expects to triple its volume in 2020
Tremor, the programmatic marketplace for re/insurance risk transfer, is predicting it will triple its volume in 2020, having now exceeded $2 billion in reinsurer quotes.
Tremor said it anticipates an active renewal season, with a range of auctions planned this month and a further $1 billion of limit committed from traditional treaty and facultative reinsurance programs, ILW placements and parametric transactions. Tremor counts more than 100 reinsurers, Lloyd’s syndicates and ILS funds as members of its marketplace.
W.R. Berkley last week priced and placed the renewal of its 2020 property catastrophe program on the Tremor marketplace, with more than 50 reinsurers from all major markets participating. Tremor made $600 million of capacity available for the renewal, it said.
Tremor said its streamlined process increases efficiency. For W.R. Berkeley, reinsurers received submission materials and the contract was negotiated and finalised in advance. The Tremor quoting window was open for several days, in which time reinsurers submitted blind sealed bids. The final results were reported to all sides of the marketplace within hours of the window closing, including the final clearing price per layer and each reinsurer’s precise allocation.
In a hardening market environment and with the retro marketplace in particular tightening, early and efficient placements can be that much more attractive, Tremor said.
Melissa Emmendorfer, senior vice president of insurance risk management at Berkley, said its first renewal on Tremor had really emphasised the platform’s benefits. “This year, with less time spent on the education process, the timing efficiency gains were more obvious, highlighted by the fact that the entire program was priced and allocated before Thanksgiving.”
Sean Bourgeois, CEO of Tremor, said Berkley’s property catastrophe placement renewal had drawn an increased number of reinsurers and made more capacity available. “Our advanced quoting features were utilised and despite a hardening market, we were able to find competitive market clearing prices and compute limit allocations in a matter of hours that met everyone’s expectations,” he said.
Hilary Paul, partner at LGT ILS Partners, on behalf of Lumen Re, also praised the efficiency of the Tremor quoting process. “It's great to be able to offer capacity and get the resulting signed lines the next day,” he said. “We find the insight that we gain into the broader market view after the placement is completed to be very interesting and valuable.
