On Day 2 of the 67th Rendez-Vous de Septembre, Henri Winand asks: are reinsurers managing the cycle, or being managed by it? Corporate Boards want resilience, not just the cheapest renewal.

On the second day of the reinsurance industry’s 67th Rendez-Vous de Septembre, the debate intensifies: are reinsurers truly managing the cycle, or are they simply passengers of supply, demand, and the cost of capital?

As Robert Wiest, CEO of MS Reinsurance, observed in his interview with the Intelligent Insurer, the industry often calls for underwriting discipline, but at each renewal, the temptation to chase growth re-emerges.

What Leaders Must Know

  • Plenty of capital has returned (but much of it looks the same to Boards and their buyers. If capital only backs the same undifferentiated products, the only lever left is pricing: a race to the bottom).
  • Pricing discipline is fragile. Catastrophe rates edged down at July 1, raising fears of sliding back into familiar, supply-demand-driven cycles.
  • Secondary perils escalate. Wildfires, floods, and convective storms increasingly drive losses, and they strain capital structures, not just catastrophe models.
  • Renewals are pragmatic, not “fair.” Discussions are respectful, but ultimately shaped by economics and capital costs.
  • Balance remains elusive. Who shoulders risk, reinsurers or cedants, remains precarious, with history warning against overstretch.

Why It Matters for AkinovA, Clients and Partners

The quote “those who ignore history are doomed to repeat it” may hold true if the industry focuses only on supply and demand. When markets harden, carriers resist innovation; when they soften, margin erosion kills investment, creating a destructive cycle powered by supply and demand alone.

Boards are no merely looking to “win the renewal” with the cheapest premium. They know there is a difference between cheap and cost-effective. “Pay peanuts, get monkeys” applies just as well in insurance: underpriced products often end in disputes and litigation, as carriers under-reserved and must defend their balance sheets.

What Boards really need is value that delivers resilience: protection against volatility, structures that adapt to evolving businesses, and capital that aligns with long-term growth, not just today’s renewal. Yet here’s the gap:

  • There is not a lot of capital for what Boards really need.That’s why more than 90% of Fortune 500 corporates now operate captives.
  • Traditional capital isn’t fit for purpose. It doesn’t back what Boards truly need: flexibility, relevance, and ability to scale with their evolving risk.
  • Captives have filled the gap. Once in place, captive premiums bypass the market, depleting traditional capacity without returning, siphoning hundreds of billions in premium from the traditional market.
  • So the challenge is relevance. For underwriting capital to earn sustainable returns, it must stay relevant to clients often larger than re/insurers’ balance sheets.

At AkinovA, we believe the answer is clear:

👉 Listen to the ultimate clients → those paying the source of premium.

👉 Underwrite the client, not the class™ → underwrite growth, not just insurance lines.

👉 Structure products and technologies to deliver at scale → co-create solutions with corporates, their brokers and carriers to bring high-quality premium back into the industry, while delivering both resilience for Boards and risk-adjusted returns for capital.

This is how the industry stays relevant: by delivering real value, not just beating on price.

Read Henri’s full article here: https://lnkd.in/eKdFvMV7