Aon: Bermuda capacity helps fuel global competition
Reinsurance capacity has expanded and pricing is easing worldwide, with Bermuda once again playing a central role in supplying property market capital, according to Aon’s Q3 2025 Global Insurance Market Insights report.
The report described the reinsurance environment as “ample” and increasingly competitive, helping to drive double-digit rate reductions across many markets.
Aon said the softening is “driven by two years of profitability and retained earnings rather than a change in fundamentals”, noting that no significant influx of new capital has yet entered the traditional reinsurance space.
Bermuda and London were cited as key sources of new property market capacity “fuelling widespread rate reductions” for well-managed risks in the United States, Britain, Europe and Australia.
The report added that global buyers are turning increasingly to parametric triggers, structured reinsurance and captive solutions to strengthen their risk-financing programmes — areas where Bermuda continues to lead.
Despite record-breaking catastrophe losses of at least $100 billion in the first half of 2025, the second-highest total on record, Aon said the market remains resilient. The year’s losses were driven by convective storms and wildfires in the US, as well as Hurricane Melissa, described as one of the strongest Atlantic hurricanes ever recorded.
While Melissa is expected to shift Caribbean market conditions, Aon said it is unlikely to trigger a global hardening of reinsurance prices.
Mike Merlo, chief claims officer for Aon Commercial Risk Solutions in the US and Bermuda, said the growing frequency and complexity of large claims points to the need for collaboration and preparation.
“As the frequency and complexity of very large claims has continued to increase across many lines of insurance, so too has the value and importance of proactively establishing collaborative relationships and good lines of communication with insurers’ claims personnel to prepare in advance for optimal claims handling and resolution,” he said.
“Aon is working with its clients to lay these foundations.”
The report also pointed to rising adoption of artificial intelligence, alternative capital and innovation in claims handling as defining trends for the year ahead.
