Following on from the departure from Australia of giant US reinsurer St Paul Re in December comes news that it started a bit of a rush to leave.

An industry table prepared by JP Morgan/Deloitte-Trowbridge Consulting shows that QBE Re and Copenhagen Re have withdrawn from the Australian market, although QBE Re is continuing to write some property business.

Zurich Re has also ceased writing new business. Also, in March, American Re announced a restructuring of its international reinsurance operations.

The Chairman of Deloitte’s national insurance industry group, Peter Caldwell, said it could be concluded that the reinsurance market is restructuring.

The withdrawals sparked concern among local insurers and brokers. Heath Lambert Executive Chairman Andrew Plympton said the departures will hit the specialist classes, like D&O and professional indemnity, particularly hard. He told the Australian Financial Review that a drop in reinsurance capacity in these areas would affect the ability of insurers to do business.

Mr Plympton said with the current hard market, corporate clients about to renew their insurance for the next financial year may face further premium increases.