Speaking with Reinsurance News at the RVS 2023 in Monte Carlo, Barder said: “We are in an amazing cycle right now, it’s clear that the market’s going to be hard for 2024. So, our timing to launch the company has been so well positioned.
“Launching the company and being so well-positioned within a year, is a fantastic accomplishment for us. At a time when capacity is so tight, particularly as we build up to 1-1.”
“When we look at the strategy in the market, particularly in the programme space which is where we’re pretty material, retentions are going to be really key. Writing business that you want to retain, it’s going to be really hard and I’m not sure how much of the programme market is set up to manage that,” she added.
Barder explained that the firm has addressed retentions confidently and is “well positioned”, and highlighted that it’s an underwriting first company.
“I truly mean that, we feel that it’s very important to any programme that we are partnering with, we’re going to retain a material part of that programme, you know, 30% to 50%. And I think that will send a very positive message to the reinsurance market, who is looking for that,” she stated.
Discussing RVS specifically, Barder said that: “Part of the reason I’m here is to try to develop some reinsurance partners that will assist us as we move forward into 2024. I feel very lucky that we really have such a clean company with no legacy issues, so we will really be getting into the market in a big way and I’m looking forward to 2024.
“Now that we can deploy our paper, we will be looking to create strategic relationships with direct writing MGA’s, who we can work with to build out their business models, to create some traction in the market.”
Barder acknowledged that reinsurance is still going to be expensive and difficult to get.
“But, in real terms, our book, we don’t write any cat, so we’re in an okay position with regards to that,” she said.
“I think there is still a lot of surplus fronting capacity around, but it’ll be interesting to see what happens as 2024 unfolds, because no longer are the companies going to be able to just write a minor line to support the business, I think that that model is over,” concluded Barder.
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