Tom Johansmeyer, Head of PCS, gave a keynote speech titled "The Four Horsemen of 2021 (key reinsurance risks that won't go away)".

This was a session from our Prospectus 2021 event, the new annual reinsurance and insurance-linked securities (ILS) conference brought to you by Artemis in collaboration with sister title Reinsurance News in November 2020.

Johansmeyer used the Four Horsemen to underline what he saw as the  greatest challenges for the insurance and reinsurance industry in 2021.

The COVID-19 coronavirus pandemic was top of the four risks likely to impact insurers and reinsurers in 2021, followed by the potential for civil unrest and Strikes, Riots and Civil Commotion (SRCC).

After that, Johansmeyer saw cyber risk as the third largest risk to insurance and reinsurance markets for 2021.

The fourth horseman though was natural catastrophe and severe weather risk, which quickly became true with the US winter storms in February 2021.

Key though, for insurance and reinsurance markets in 2021, would be generating returns.

"How you generate returns may be different relative to the amount of capital you’re deploying, that will depend on the rate environment, of course. And, you could have some issues around choosing what makes sense. Some classes of business that looked good before, may not now. Some classes of business that you desperately wanted to leave until now, but for reasons of momentum or other forms of commitment you haven’t, this may be the opportunity," Johansmeyer explained.