Monte Carlo Rendez-Vous and Baden-Baden Reinsurance Meeting

Every year, in mid-September, several thousand reinsurance professionals, cedants, reinsurers, brokers, ILS fund managers, fill the hotels of Monte Carlo for the Rendez-Vous de Septembre. A few weeks later, in October, the Baden-Baden reinsurance meeting in Germany plays a similar role, more focused on continental Europe. Neither is a market in the sense of contracts being signed: thirty-minute meetings are held back to back, from eight in the morning until late at night. But the January 1 renewals, which concentrate the largest share of the global market's treaty premiums, are prepared there. Cedants present their program, their loss record and their price expectations, reinsurers state their capacity and the layers they want to cut or grow, brokers hand out their market analyses. The figures and signals that come out, a 5% rise on low layers, stability on high ones, make the news of the moment and set expectations for December. After a big loss or an active hurricane season, the mood of September signals whether the market is hardening. The Monte Carlo meeting has also served as a venue for announcing ILS programs, new capacity and mergers. The event is criticized for its cost and its closeness to pricing decisions, but it remains the profession's calendar.