By Matt Sheehan—- Analysts at Sequel have argued that insurers need to rethink their “highly inefficient approach” to reinsurance buying, alongside the release of the latest version of the Sequel Re system.

Sequel, a Verisk business, argues that investing in an end-to-end reinsurance system is now the logical way to manage reinsurance programs efficiently while getting the most out of data.

The company notes that an increasing number of companies are now choosing to purchase reinsurance centrally and buying enterprise-wide coverages, and syndicates and insurers are becoming more aware of the potential competitive advantages they can generate by viewing reinsurance purchasing holistically.

“This is particularly true when it comes to aligning reinsurance programmes with group-level risk appetites and balance sheet objectives – a process arguably never more important than today given the growing threats posed by Covid-19, rising cat losses, silent cyber and other systemic risks,” Sequel stated.

Launched in October 2020, Sequel Re is one such reinsurance management platform, which helps insures manage their reinsurance positions across all outwards policies and inwards data, in addition to a host of essential policy management and reporting functions.

The latest version sees the outward reinsurance system for Lloyd’s syndicates and London Market insurers move exclusively into the cloud and introduces a number of other updates, promising improvements in speed, efficiency and control to the reinsurance process.

“Lloyd’s and London Market insurers have in recent years invested millions in updating technology to improve underwriting efficiency, digital placement and regulatory compliance, however, only recently has the market recognised the need to drive up efficiency in its reinsurance processes,” commented Steven Barclay Product Owner Sequel Re.

“Reinsurance has huge strategic value for any insurer. However, underwriters have historically controlled reinsurance purchasing for their individual portfolios manually and separately from one another – a highly inefficient approach in the modern era further complicated by M&A activity, legacy systems and the manual workarounds required on more bespoke or complex reinsurance programmes,” Barclay continued.

Other updates to Sequel Re include new Deemed Policy functionality and new Accounting Period Close functionality to improve the depth of the statistical position for downstream finance systems, as well as new system-wide reports on unissued recoveries and premium statements.

These changes are designed give users a more granular view of premium data, greater speed and nuance in premium calculations, and more actionable insights from their reinsurance programmes.