© 2006 National Association of Insurance Commissioners
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number of wholly owned U.S. reinsurance corporations. Since 33 of the top 40 reinsurance groups are
domiciled outside the U.S., it stands to reason that a large market share is held by non-U.S. reinsurers
(directly or ultimately controlled through off-shore parent corporations). Of the top 40 reinsurance
groups, 13 are domiciled in Bermuda; 12 are domiciled in Europe; 7 are domiciled in the U.S., and 5 are
domiciled in Japan. Since this group includes both life and non-life, it may be useful to look at the same
report of the top 10 non-life reinsurance groups. Of these 10 companies, 7 are domiciled outside of the
U.S (6 in Europe and 1 in Barbados) and three are domiciled in the U.S.
Collectibility of Reinsurance Recoverables
The ultimate recoverability of reinsurance balances by the ceding company, and the timeliness of
recoveries, has also become a matter of regulatory concern. Reinsurance balances recoverable from the
company’s reinsurers should be evaluated just as any other receivable would be: based on the perceived
financial condition of the reinsurer, what is the likelihood that the company will recover all of the
amounts recoverable from that reinsurer in a timely manner, consistent with the actual payment of
claims under the polices reinsured, or as otherwise specified by the terms of the reinsurance agreement?
Several revisions to the U.S. annual statement reinsurance schedules were designed to provide strong
motivation to ceding companies to do everything possible to accelerate the collection process. The
statutory penalties for delinquent reinsurance recoverables do not appear to have had the intended effect
of accelerating cash recoveries, as measured by the total penalty amount for all companies reporting,
expressed as a percentage of industry surplus. It should be noted that this penalty applies to overdue
balances from both U.S. and non-U.S. reinsurers. Recoverables that are in excess of 90 days overdue
will incur a 20% reserve or allowance. In addition, overdue recoverable amounts that exceed 20% of all
recoverables on paid losses create an annual statement penalty of 20% of those recoverables. These
penalties will directly impact the company's surplus position. Recoverables in dispute were not
considered overdue, since the cause for non-payment is uncertainty about the reinsurer’s liability, not
tardiness. However, regulators noted that a ceding company could avoid the penalty for overdue
recoverables by classifying them as “in dispute”, so a provision of 20% of amounts in dispute was added
in 1993. Therefore, reinsurers that are slow-paying are treated like unauthorized reinsurers, except that
the statutory penalty is the greater of 20% of the unsecured recoverables and 20% of the overdue
amounts, not the sum of these two amounts. For slow-paying authorized reinsurers, the unsecured
recoverables include amounts in dispute.
Overdue Adjusted Overdue Rec.
Recoverable PHS % of Adj PHS
1997 3,567,773 324,084,122 1.1%
1998 3,597,841 343,192,963 1.0%
1999 3,659,232 346,979,158 1.1%
2000 4,949,344 329,823,928 1.5%
2001 5,305,798 300,915,643 1.8%
2002 5,539,577 297,995,175 1.9%
2003 6,799,993 365,796,759 1.9%
2004 6,763,006 413,353,862 1.6%
Overdue Recoverable on Paid L & LAE % of Adj PHS