Sticky business.

(From Insurance Day)

BROKERS and underwriters may continue their squabbling over whether the insurance cycle has turned, but one thing's for sure it will eventually.

And it is not just the brokers and risk managers that think that's a good thing. As Insurance Day subscribers will have read, last week Insurance Information Institute chief economist Robert Hartwig described the underwriting cycle as "serving a useful purpose".

His argument, outlined at the annual Casualty Actuarial Society meeting, was that the cycle downturn forces insurers that rely on cashflow underwriting out of the market.

In an ideal world no insurers would indulge in such practices, but they do and will continue to do so despite underwriters' protestations that they will maintain their discipline.

At the same conference Mary Weiss, Deaver professor in risk and insurance at Temple University, bemoaned the lack of transparency between insurers and investors.

As we have seen with the reaction to some of the reserve-strengthening ...