By Chris Wilkens, Chief Product Officer

What is Tremor’s new Panorama placement process? What are the benefits for reinsurers and cedents? How does it address fundamental shortcomings of firm order terms? Whether you are new to Tremor or a veteran user, read on to learn more about how Panorama modernizes reinsurance placement.

The key to process is getting it just right – too little, too much, or even the wrong process can turn a straightforward task into a herculean effort, while a good process can make many of the most complex tasks feel simple. This is the heart of Panorama – bringing together technology and economics to get reinsurance placement just right.

Everyone wins

Better process begets better outcomes. Panorama improves reinsurance placement and shares the benefits with cedents and reinsurers alike.

For reinsurers

A voice at the pricing table – Large and small reinsurers alike have a stronger voice in pricing the risk. With Panorama, the cedent sees an anonymized, aggregate view of capacity before setting its own price. Cedents know that pricing is best-and-final, so they need to meet the terms offered in order to bind the capacity. Cedents can also see how much coverage is collectively coming from their most crucial relationships, keeping their voice strong.

Speed – Once details of the risk and contract are finalized, pricing and placement take place within days. On average, reinsurer capacity is committed for only 85 hours.

Control – Reinsurers get what they authorize. With Panorama, unpredictable sign-downs and tedious post-authorization negotiation are things of the past. Reinsurers authorize what they want at different pricing levels and get exactly what they authorized once the cedent finalizes prices (subject to cedent’s panel constraints) without broadcasting their preferences to the larger market

Precision – Supply curves and constraints let reinsurers fine-tune their authorization across a range of prices, committing more capacity when pricing is attractive and guaranteeing a baseline level of participation to maintain a relationship. Constraints let reinsurers indicate that lines are flexible or that certain capacity is contingent on one or more lines elsewhere.

Data – After the placement, the market map shows you what the cedent chose to buy and how your pricing compared to your competition. These are insights you can use in your next transaction.

For cedents

True data-driven pricing – With Panorama, cedents can see best-and-final authorizations (in aggregate form) before setting pricing. Contrast this with a traditional process, where pricing must be estimated from models and indicative quotes before any best-and-final information is available. Seeing best-and-final up front avoids costly and time-consuming over/under-subscription.

True data-driven coverage – Cedents can request pricing for alternative coverage and structures, then make business-critical decisions about what coverage to buy based on best-and-final pricing.

Market insights – Rich data gives cedents deep insights into how the market views its risk.

Speed and simplicity – Pricing and allocation is finished in a matter of days through a simple, intuitive process.

Reinsurer access – Share your risk with more markets faster.

Friction points with firm order terms

There are two important friction points in a traditional firm order terms (FOT) placement:

1. Reinsurers know their portfolios and the leverage they get across risks and perils, so they have the best information about where the risk should be priced, yet FOT requires the cedent to make the first move and dictate a final price using only market models and a few indicative quotes.

2. Pricing and authorized lines are set before the contract is finalized, leaving cedents and reinsurers in a semi-committed state that takes weeks to unravel. Lines are tentatively assigned, but most of the placement is in limbo until wording is finalized..

On the other hand, if we turn the process around, we can simultaneously get better outcomes and a faster, simpler process. If reinsurers confidentially put forward best-and-final terms before the cedent sets pricing, the cedent can make better-informed decisions about what to buy and where to price their risk with less effort, while reinsurers have a stronger voice in the cedent’s decisions. Similarly, if contract wording is finalized before capacity is authorized, then negotiations are easier and contracts can be signed immediately once pricing is set, helping cedents secure coverage quickly and minimizing the time reinsurers' capital is committed.

Can we do this in 2022? Yes, with the help of modern economics and optimization technology we can fix the process and make placement better for everyone. Enter Tremor’s Panorama.

Panorama

Panorama separates pricing and placement into two primary steps that take place over a few days:

1. Authorization – Reinsurers authorize bindable capacity at best-and-final terms. Tremor keeps individual authorizations strictly confidential. In order to have bindable best-and-final authorizations, contract wording must be agreed before authorizations are collected.
2. Panorama – The cedent interacts with an aggregated, anonymized view of the market and decides where to set final pricing. Tremor then computes final lines, which are bound effectively immediately.

The benefits of this approach are manifold. First, reinsurers, who have the best information about pricing, go first and put forward their best-and-final. When it comes time to finalize the price, the cedent has all the information needed to do it well, minimizing the need for cleanup after the fact. Second, contract wording is already finalized before coverage is authorized. Not only is capacity on Tremor immediately bindable without further negotiation, but the contract negotiations are substantially easier because the parties don’t need to juggle lines while negotiating wording and there is a clear deadline.

Modern economics and optimization technology are what make Panorama possible. Cedents do request pricing from reinsurers before setting FOT today, but instead of getting best-and-final in response they get indicative quotes. Four features are key to getting best-and-final authorizations: (1) reinsurers use powerful mathematical tools to indicate authorizations at every price instead of just at the FOT price, allowing them to authorize before the final price is established, (2) authorizations are kept confidential (even from the cedent) so reinsurers do not need to worry about showing their hand, (3) concurrent terms guarantee that reinsurers who authorize at low prices will still get the market price, and (4) reinsurers have exactly one opportunity to authorize and so they must put best-and-final forward or miss out on their placement. These four features, built on the latest market design and optimization tools, are what allow Panorama to fix the inversion and improve the placement process.

Use it!

Whether you are a cedent or a reinsurer (or a reinsurer ceding retro), the Tremor team is here to help you get the most out of our smart marketplace. If you would like to learn more, please reach out to us!