The Voice of Insurance
Ep301 Alfonso Valera: Everyone Is Chasing Growth
Why It Matters
Understanding how reinsurance brokers like Aon are thriving in a soft market offers insurers and investors a roadmap for managing risk and capitalizing on emerging opportunities. The episode highlights shifting market dynamics—such as lower pricing, changing retention strategies, and growth in emerging regions—that are critical for anyone involved in insurance, underwriting, or capital allocation.
Key Takeaways
- •Aon Reinsurance International leads growth across EMEA, APAC, Middle East
- •Soft market fuels demand, expanding reinsurance pie despite lower rates
- •Record cat bond and sidecar issuance boosts alternative capital availability
- •Underinsurance remains massive gap; insurers aim to close coverage shortfall
- •AI and digital tools reshape underwriting and market facilitation
Pulse Analysis
Alfonso Valera, CEO of International at Aon Reinsurance Solutions, oversees the broker’s operations outside the Americas, covering EMEA, Asia‑Pacific and the Middle East. Under his leadership, Aon has turned geographic diversification into a primary growth engine, adding significant premium in mature European markets while accelerating expansion in Latin America, the Gulf region and India. Valera’s long‑standing tenure—from a small Spanish Lloyd’s broker to the world’s largest reinsurance intermediary—gives him a unique perspective on how scale, regional expertise and product specialization can drive sustainable revenue in a fragmented market.
The current soft market has not slowed Aon’s growth; lower pricing has actually unlocked demand, allowing the firm to sell more coverage and expand the overall reinsurance pie. Clients, facing higher retentions after the recent hard market, are turning to brokers for capacity, while the industry sees a shift toward more balanced loss‑sharing rather than the extreme risk‑transfer of a decade ago. Under‑insurance remains a critical challenge, with large portions of global risk still uncovered, especially in emerging economies. By targeting these gaps, Aon aims to capture new premium streams even as combined ratios improve across the sector.
Alternative capital is reshaping the reinsurance landscape. Record‑breaking cat‑bond issuances and a surge in side‑car vehicles have flooded the market with sophisticated investors, reinforcing capacity and driving competitive pricing. The revival of Lloyd’s as a conduit for ILS deals further diversifies risk transfer options. Simultaneously, AI‑driven analytics and digital underwriting platforms are accelerating deal execution and improving risk assessment, a trend Valera describes as “facilitation” of reinsurance. Together, these innovations create a more pliant market, enabling brokers to close underwriting gaps, meet client appetite, and sustain growth despite cyclical market pressures.
Episode Description
I first met today’s guest just under 34 years ago on my first day at work in the London Market.
Back then Alfonso Valera and I worked in the London-based Lloyd’s subsidiary of the biggest broker in Spain. Alfonso was my senior and had already been in post for a year and patiently helped show me the ropes.
He spoke perfect English, was a confident, skilful and forceful negotiator who was incredibly passionate about the insurance business and was always fun, direct and easy to deal with.
He was mature beyond his years and was a natural leader. It seemed obvious to anyone who knew him back then that he was destined for great things.
That broking business was taken over by Aon in the late nineties.
Alfonso stayed on and over 25 years later he is now CEO of International at Aon Reinsurance Solutions.
International covers the whole of the Rest of the World other than the Americas, and Aon is the largest reinsurance broker by revenues, so however you measure it Alfonso has one of the biggest jobs in global reinsurance.
His job titles and seniority might have changed since we first met, but I can guarantee that he is exactly the same person I knew when I was fresh out of University.
He is still disarmingly direct and straightforward and he is still passionate about the business, but now he is speaking from a vantage point that few in the global insurance market can reach.
Alfonso is still great fun to talk to and this conversation took on a life of its own.
Whether it’s the state of the market and changes in buyer and seller appetites, facilitisation in reinsurance, the prospects for M&A, the MGA phenomenon, enhanced competition between reinsurance intermediaries or the changes that AI is likely to bring, Alfonso gives me a straight answer every time and we barely pause for breath.
Catching up with Alfonso was a joy from start to finish. Listen on and you’ll be bound to agree.
LINKS:
We thank our naming sponsor AdvantageGo, now part of Sapiens:
https://www.advantagego.com
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