Brian Duperreault, President and Chief Executive Officer of Marsh & McLennan Companies, Inc., opened the briefing. Peter Zaffino, President and CEO of Guy Carpenter, led a panel of Guy Carpenter executives that included Vice Chairman Richard Booth, Henry Keeling, President and CEO of International Operations, Chris Klein, Global Head of Business Intelligence and David Priebe, Chairman of Global Client Development.

In his introductory comments, Mr. Zaffino emphasized, "The reinsurance industry has been resilient this year, but we still have significant challenges ahead of us. After last year's losses, we have seen capital replenished throughout the first half of 2009, and we see that reinsurers are better positioned to respond to clients' needs."

Richard Booth remarked, "Absent another major event, either property or financial, signs are pointing to a fairly benign renewal season. As we saw last year, there are many factors that could still change renewal pricing. If we do not have a market-changing cat event, reinsurance pricing will be based on available capital and how insurers and reinsurers allocate it."

"Despite the challenging market conditions, reinsurers have been able to regain much of the capital that was lost as a result of the financial crisis and 2008 windstorms," said Christopher Klein. "Fears of a capital famine, not to mention the shortage itself, appear to have passed. By every measure - earnings, shareholders' equity, volatility, book value - a recovery is in progress." Mr. Klein added, "Whether these trends will be sustained remains to be seen, but we may be entering a growth period."

David Priebe commented on the resurgence of the capital markets. "As part of their risk and capital management strategies, major issuers are using cat bonds to complement and diversify their core placements." He also noted, "With capital flowing again, cedents and markets have options, and they are taking advantage of them."

Mr. Priebe continued, "There is a possibility that cat bond issuance activity could reach USD3 billion this year, especially with increased sponsor interest due to the reduced clearing spreads on the July transactions." He also added, "Over the next 24 months, M&A activity is likely to be robust.