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The Reinsurance Industry's increased resilience to Catastrophic Events from a Financial Security Perspective.

McLaughlin, Colette (2006) The Reinsurance Industry's increased resilience to Catastrophic Events from a Financial Security Perspective. Masters thesis, Dublin, National College of Ireland.

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Abstract

One of the key steps in understanding the drivers behind the research topic in question is to first come to terms with what reinsurance is and equally the definition of financial security and why this is essential in today’s reinsurance market.

Reinsurance can be described very simply as “insurance for insurance companies”. It is a means of transferring some of the financial risk taken on by insurance companies such as the insurance of cars, homes and buildings to another insurance company, the reinsurer. Indeed insurers buy reinsurance similarly to individuals that buy insurance, in order to protect themselves against large financial losses in the event of a disaster. Most homeowners do not have the funds to rebuild their homes if it was destroyed in a fire for example. Hence they transfer this risk to an insurance company by paying a premium for the insurance company to do so. If the insurer does not wish to attain the risk then they might in turn transfer it to a reinsurer or several reinsurers. (Gastel, R., 2004,p1)

The author seeks to investigate the hypothesis of whether reinsurers have become more resilient to catastrophes from a financial security in recent years with a particular focus on the US Hurricanes of 2005. Through the identification of the research questions of why reinsurers have become more resilient and how they have done so, the author believes that the hypothesis will be addressed. The author believes that qualitative testing is the most appropriate method and the method chosen was structured interviews. The author believes that this method enabled the hypotheses and research questions to be addressed more effectively than quantitative research.

The author’s motivation for the chosen topic is the author’s role as a Senior Analyst for the Financial Security of Reinsurers for the Allianz Group. The author felt that further research into the chosen topic would be both beneficial to the industry and a feasible study to undertake from an academic perspective.

Item Type: Thesis (Masters)
Subjects: H Social Sciences > HG Finance > Financial Services
H Social Sciences > HG Finance > Insurance
H Social Sciences > HD Industries. Land use. Labor > HD61 Risk Management
Divisions: School of Business > Master of Arts in Finance
Depositing User: SINEAD CORCORAN
Date Deposited: 05 Feb 2011 16:12
Last Modified: 14 Jan 2015 10:39
URI: https://norma.ncirl.ie/id/eprint/477

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