Q&A: Albert Benchimol, Axis Capital Holdings Ltd.
Posted On: Oct. 26, 2014 12:00 AM CST
Albert Benchimol was named president and CEO of Bermuda-based Axis Capital Holdings Ltd. in May 2012 and has been a company director since January 2012. He joined Axis Capital as executive vice president and chief financial officer in January 2011. Previously, he had been executive vice president and CFO of PartnerRe Ltd., from April 2000 through September 2010, and CEO of the company's Capital Markets Group unit from June 2007 through September 2010. In a recent interview with Business Insurance Associate Editor Matthew Lerner, Mr. Benchimol talked about the critical issues facing insurers and reinsurers this year. Edited excerpts follow.
Q: What are the greatest challenges to both the insurance and reinsurance businesses in 2014?
A: I actually think the insurance business is doing very well. We've had generally close to three years of pricing improvements, and based on the various metrics that I look at in terms of renewal pricing, I would say that a little less than half of them are still showing some pricing improvement, a handful are flat, and the rest are starting to come down. In those areas where pricing is inadequate, we are demonstrating the necessary discipline.
On the reinsurance side, it's a little bit different. The significant amount of excess capacity is such that many of our competitors are using price to sustain their relevance as opposed to focusing on the true differentiators of adding value to clients.
Given the price competition in select areas, we've been unable to continue support for certain lines, and while that's unfortunate, it's just the reality of the business we're in.
Q: How are regulatory issues affecting the insurance and reinsurance sectors?
A: I think there's both a political element and a pure regulatory component at work here. The political component is that the distinction between banking and insurance isn't always understood by legislators, who under this pretext put pressure on regulators to enact new and expanded rules in the financial services sector.
On the pure regulatory side, I'm all in favor of transparency, but let's make sure we have consistent demands from the regulators so we don't have to supply different types of reports and data to different regulators. We'd like to see global consistency in the demand for information and how it's reported.
Finally, we would like a reduction in local protectionism, so that we can insure that good products and services are made available to all markets. Those would be my messages to regulators.
Q: How does the pressure of alternative capital bear upon the reinsurance space?
A: Clearly the excess capacity in the industry is leading to increased competition. Primary companies are buying less reinsurance, so you've got a situation where there is significant growth in capital coupled with declining demand for the product, and that's creating some price pressure. One way we're dealing with it is by looking to compete in areas where there is less of this commodity-type capacity, as with our initiatives in the global agriculture reinsurance business and the weather and commodities risk area.
Q: What are your views on consolidation? Would Axis participate?
A: Put me in the camp of those who think there will be fewer reinsurers going forward, and in particular, smaller reinsurers whose value proposition is generally limited to providing complementary capacity are those that are most threatened in this environment. In terms of Axis, I see little value in acquiring one of these smaller reinsurers that only provides capacity.
On the primary side, we would actually look at a number of acquisitions, particularly bolt-on acquisitions probably accident and health being uppermost in my mind.