The reinsurer that sets a treaty's price and terms, and on whose signature the others align.
The lead is the reinsurer that negotiates a placement's terms first, sets the price and takes a significant share, often the largest on the panel. Followers then write on the same terms without renegotiating, and many treaties give the lead contractual prerogatives: consent to settlements above a threshold, approval of mid-year amendments, appointment of adjusters. The problem it solves is the cost of collective negotiation: if twenty reinsurers each debated the price and every clause, no placement would close, and the cedant would manage twenty separate contracts for one cover. Concentrating the negotiation on a single market whose technical competence sets the reference makes the operation workable. The drawback is dependence: the quality of the price for the whole layer rests on the rigor of one underwriter, and a complaisant lead draws a whole market into an inadequate price, which cycle analysis regularly observes at the end of a soft market.
On a 2026 cyber layer, the lead takes 20 percent and sets a rate on line of 9.4 percent after requiring a 168 hour clause and a revised war exclusion. Eleven followers complete the remaining 80 percent on identical terms. Two markets that disputed the hours clause take no share: the placement closes at 100 percent without them, in seven days.
Lead reinsurer, Réassureur apériteur, Slip leader