Liberty Mutual’s Moore: Reinsurers must focus on more than rate cycles

In a rapidly changing risk landscape, reinsurers must adapt to client-specific needs rather than solely focusing on rate cycles, according to Matthew Moore, president of underwriting at Liberty Mutual Global Risk Solutions.

Speaking to The Insurer TV in a joint interview with Chantal Rodriguez, CUO of Liberty Mutual Reinsurance (LM Re), Moore emphasised that while the headlines during conference season often focus on supply and demand dynamics for 1.1 renewals, deeper challenges persist.

“There’s still a lot of work that needs to be done by the reinsurance industry,” Moore said, highlighting key issues beyond property cat such as civil unrest, cyber exposures and war on land, all of which require bespoke solutions.

He stressed the importance of reinsurers not only managing risk but also supporting growth for clients in this hardening market: “The winning reinsurers will be ones that can be more bespoke, better at listening, and really focused on genuinely solving technical problems.”

LM Re’s Rodriguez echoed this sentiment, citing the company's investment in parametric products to address both traditional and evolving risks.

“We see great potential for parametrics,” she said, explaining that the products aren’t meant to replace traditional models but offer quick payouts and unique coverage, such as protecting utility companies from unseasonable weather or mitigating project delays due to heat.

“Sceptics often see it as just a hard market cycle tool,” but it’s far broader in its applications, Rodriguez continued.

The combination of parametrics and tech solutions is driving some notable innovation.

In August, LM Re agreed a partnership with Kenyan firm Britam and farming-focused insurtech Sprout to provide a parametric insurance offering to Kenyan coffee farms.

Earlier this year, the firm also partnered with technology provider Safehub to offer a building-specific, sensor-based parametric earthquake (re)insurance product.

Moore added that such innovative products can be deployed to reduce the protection gap, something Liberty Mutual is “absolutely serious about”.

“Some of the most dynamic and engaging conversations that we're having in both the insurance and the reinsurance market at the moment are a new wave, a new generation of conversations about matching new capital sources through these methods to different risk scenarios that previously we haven't been able to touch,” he said.

“I'm old enough to have been in the space of looking at inter-governmental public-private partnership solutions in natural catastrophe spaces, which previously the traditional markets haven't been able to touch over 25 years.

“I think there's been more progress made in the last 24 months than in the last 24 years in this space.”

Moore added historic concerns around basis risk that previously “inhibited the conversations around closing the protection gap” are declining quickly.

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