According to Paul Lalor, vice-president with responsibility for general insurance at the Insurance Association of Jamaica (IAJ), Caribbean reinsurers are “fed up” with the low rates being offered in the region.

“The other problem that we have been facing that’s a challenge is what they call a hard market meaning that the reinsurers are now fed up with us giving rates that they perceive to be too low,” said Lalor.

A hard insurance market refers to the upswing in a market cycle, when premiums increase and capacity for most types of insurance decreases.

“They come to us and say ‘your rates are too low, we expect you to give us this kind of rate instead of per dollar of risk. You haven’t done it for too long so I’m not going to give you too much more capacity to grow with, I’m going to give you either less capacity to place business with me or I’m going to give you the same amount of capacity,” Lalor continued.

https://www.jamaicaobserver.com/business/fed-up/

 

Capacity in this case refers to the largest amount of reinsurance available from a company or the market in general.