Despite the losses experienced in the past year, reinsurers’ appetites for Australia and New Zealand property catastrophe cover remain strong, a local conference has been told.

Speaking at the Aon Benfield 12th Biennial Hazards Conference on the Gold Coast last week, the reinsurance broker’s Asia Pacific CEO Malcolm Steingold said the renewal of reinsurance programs at July 1 was “orderly”.

“While pricing in the region was higher at renewal, insurers continued to find the capacity they required at terms and conditions that remained lower than their cost of capital and accretive to earnings,” he said.

Conference delegates were told that reinsurance is expected to cover up to two-thirds of the losses sustained by Australian and New Zealand insurers during the 2010/11 natural disaster period.

Aon Benfield’s catastrophe modelling arm, Impact Forecasting, says insured loss estimates from the Queensland floods, Cyclone Yasi, the Perth hailstorm and the New Zealand earthquakes totalled $25.6 billion.

It estimates $16 billion has been recouped from the reinsurance industry as a result of “excellent risk and capital management decisions” by Australian insurers.

“The reinsurance market has proved effective and continues to serve insurers in the region,” Mr Steingold said.

“It is clear that the negative impact on consumers and businesses from these recent losses has been lessened because of the role reinsurers played in assuming losses from the region’s insurers.”