Willis Group Holdings reinsurance division has established a new syndicated reinsurance facility, Primo, in a bid to provide protection for insurers against catastrophic and systemic loss accumulations resulting from liability portfolios.
The new global facility, which has been designed for all casualty and professional lines, provides around $400m of reinsurance capacity across the globe on the basis of pre-agreed contract wording.
Willis Re global CEO John Cavanagh John Cavanagh said: "Primo builds on over 25 years of continuous research and development since its precursor was developed in the late 1980s.
"Willis Re can now offer our diverse and global clients a tried and tested reinsurance solution protecting against events that impact multiple accident years, create quarter-on-quarter earnings pressure and represent a significant unknown in terms of quantum from the time the event is discovered until it becomes a paid loss."
The new facility is said to respond to concern around accumulation and systemic risk at a time when insurers are retaining more liability exposure and helps insurers to manage expected loss with its greater scale and diversification.
Initially supported by 20 leading reinsurers, the Primo facility streamlines the process of building reinsurance to solve complex tail exposure and delivers depth to the market through syndication, providing competitive pricing and cross-cycle resilience.
Willis Re global casualty head Andrew Newman said: "While the first-party risks from earthquake, wind, flood and other manmade perils are well served by property catastrophe reinsurance markets, until today third-party casualty risks have been considerably less well served."
Image: Willis Building in London. Photo: courtesy of Colin.