In addition to its full-year 2025 results, QBE also provided an update on reinsurance renewals on January 1, 2026, with further reductions in retentions at its major catastrophe reinsurance towers amid favorable market conditions.
QBE chief financial officer Chris Killourhy said his company had achieved another strong and sustainable reinsurance result during the renewal process, adding that QBE’s diversification across geographies and business lines made it a highly sought-after product in the market.
Killourhy added: “Supported by our strong reinsurer relationships, we are now again able to reduce the attachment point for catastrophe projects to $250 million, a reduction of almost 40% in just two years.
“At this time, there are few changes to attachment points and terms and conditions in the broader market. Ultimately, we view this as strong external validation of our approach to portfolio management and the initiatives we have implemented to reduce issue exposure.”
Readers may recall that QBE’s primary catastrophe reinsurance retention fell $100 million year over year to $300 million at renewal on January 1, 2025, which the company attributed to portfolio optimization initiatives.
In the United States, retention fell from $350 million on January 1, 2024, to $300 million in 2025, while in Australia, retention fell to $260 million from $325 million last year.
For the rest of the world, QBE’s retention fell from $250 million in 2024 to $135 million in 2025, completing broad cuts across its key regions.
On January 1, 2026, the Australian insurer continued this trend by reducing its primary catastrophe excess loss reinsurance treaty rider in the United States and Australia to $250 million.
For the rest of the world, the main XoL reinsurance treaty now has add-ons of US$200 million, with some variation, with add-ons as low as US$100 million in Asia Pacific and Latin America.
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QBE said 2025 underlined the resilience of its underlying business environment, a position further strengthened by “satisfactory results” from reinsurance renewals in 2026.
QBE added: “These strong and significantly improved foundations will support more consistent and predictable results.”
Commenting on reinsurance renewals on January 1, 2026, QBE CEO Andrew Horton said: “We have achieved considerable savings on the new program and our catastrophe budget will be slightly down year-on-year.”
“Through recent reinsurance renewals, we have also been able to reduce our retention on excess loss coverage risk.
“Previous coverage for large non-catastrophe claims was typically $50 million, and in many cases it is now just $25 million. This will help manage huge claims swings.”
QBE’s simplified 2026 reinsurance plan is as follows: