The 2019 Trading Risk award winners have taken their moment in the spotlight at a turbulent time in the ILS market’s history, making their recognition all the more valuable.
Their achievements were delivered amidst perhaps the industry’s most challenging catastrophe year to date.
2018 brought a second-round impact from Hurricane Irma, combined with fresh losses such as Typhoon Jebi and further Californian wildfires, which proved to be on a scale unforeseen for such events.
Beyond the catastrophe losses, we also grappled with news of regulatory investigations into a leading market player, multiple M&A deals, Florida lawsuit action and many more issues.
From where I’m sitting as a Trading Risk journalist, that makes for very exciting times…but I recognise it’s a bit more of a double-edged sword for those in the market.
And from the outside, all the topics that have been gripping us over the past year must seem even more bizarre…with all the mainstream press about insurance market diversity at the moment, I’m pretty sure there must be some journalist out there hot on the tail of this “loss creep” we all keep talking about.
However, there is always a bright side – and difficult times created the opportunity for market participants to stand out from the crowd.
It was refreshing to see that the field of contenders for awards this year was broader and more differentiated than in past years, drawing out new names for recognition as shortlisted candidates.
Ultimately, however, there could be only one winner in each round. Each year we have a spirited debate amongst our panel of judges to determine these winners, and so once again my thanks are due to Adam Alvarez, Trevor Bolt, Simon Cloney, Morton Lane and Jay Nichols.
To view the Trading Risk Awards 2018 Post-Event Supplement, please click here.