SIRC 2026: Tough renewal ahead as APAC reinsurers face mounting pressure as soft market persists into 1.1

November 3 2026 by

Reinsurers in Asia Pacific are facing a “tough” 1.1 renewal as abundant capacity and benign insured natural catastrophe losses in 2026 drive significant pressure on reinsurance rates and terms and conditions, according to MS Amlin’s APAC head.

William Ho said that the coming 1.1 renewals will see a continuation of the steep market softening over the past two years, with reinsurers facing difficult choices due to the erosion of margins towards or below technical adequacy.

“From a reinsurer perspective, it’s going to be a tough renewal as expectations will be there from cedants and brokers again to make further savings,” said Ho.

“With further pricing pressure, if it starts eroding the margins towards the technical adequacy level or potentially below that adequacy level, the difficult choice for reinsurers there is if they want to continue or not.”

After several years of extremely strong reinsurer earnings, APAC has a surplus of existing and new reinsurance capacity, creating intense competition and fuelling the soft market.

According to Ho, MS Amlin’s growth expectations for the coming renewal are relatively muted, with the carrier prioritising key client relationships, and scaling back its exposure to treaties which do not meet its expectations.

“The region does have a surplus of existing and new capacity,” Ho said. “Cedents will have to be careful on the security of the people they choose to deal with. We’ve been here before with cycle management. It is just a negotiation between the buyers and sellers to pick the right balance.

“I guess the message we would have for our cedents is that we will listen to every reasoning and request, but we are not here to say yes to every single one of those.

“If it is getting to a level where we don’t think we can meet our technical margins or medium-term requirements, we’re left in the difficult position of either having to reduce or come off, which is not something we want to do, but further pressure on renewal expectations may well lead to some of those difficult conversations.”

Reinsurers face growing pressure to relax terms and conditions, and maintaining underwriting discipline at the coming 1.1 renewals will be a major challenge for the industry, according to Ho.

“If natural catastrophe insured losses remain benign, there will be pressure, but the frequency is certainly there, and we will be acknowledging that in our discussions and engagement.” William Ho, MS Amlin

“We think it will hold firm,” he added. “Structural changes and the terms and conditions tightening that happened over the last few years has taken a long time to get the coverage or structures to where they are.

“To go and relax them so soon after adjusting them, it will take a long time to get that back. So, I think also equal priority from a purchasing perspective may well be focused on the spend as opposed to the coverage. Hopefully, we will be pretty firm on it, and we will see these terms and conditions holding firm.”

This year insured natural catastrophe losses in APAC have remained benign, although the region has seen large losses recently such as the flooding in Bangkok in September, the landslide in Nepal in August, the violent earthquake which struck Kumamoto in Japan in July.

The events have served as “timely reminders” for the industry about the growing risk the region faces from climate change and the arrival of a super El Nino.

Thailand is a notable outlier in the region, with the country’s reinsurance market already digesting the impact of two major natural catastrophes in 2025 – the Bangkok earthquake and the Hat Yai floods.

The recent flooding in Bangkok was a sizable loss event for the industry, although nowhere near as bad as the disastrous 2011 floods, and it could have a noticeable influence on the trajectory of property catastrophe pricing in Thailand, according to Ho.

“If natural catastrophe insured losses remain benign, there will be pressure, but the frequency is certainly there, and we will be acknowledging that in our discussions and engagement,” said Ho.

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