The Primer Series on Insurance provides a summary overview of how the insurance industry works, the main challenges of supervision, and key product areas. The series is intended for policymakers, governmental officials, and financial sector generalists who are involved with the insurance sector. The monthly primer series, launched in February 2009 by the World Bank’s Insurance Program, is written in a straightforward, non-technical style to share concepts and lessons about insurance with a broad community of non-specialists.
Reinsurance is a financial transaction by which risk is transferred
(ceded) from an insurance company (cedant) to a reinsurance company (reinsurer) in exchange of a payment (reinsurance premium). Providers of reinsurance are professional reinsurers which are entities exclusively dedicated to the activity of reinsurance. Also in most jurisdictions insurance companies are allowed to participate in reinsurance. The terms of a reinsurance transaction are defined in a reinsurance treaty. Due to the complexity of reinsurance treaties it is not uncommon that the definitive treaties are only signed months after the risk transfer took place. To document the acceptance of the risk, a short version of a treaty call a slip containing the most important terms of the agreement is used instead. Slips are signed before the risk is transferred and accepted by the reinsurer. Some jurisdictions are requiring signed treaties before the risk is transferred.