Article: Baden-Baden burden: insurers contend with single-A and triple-B status.(up front)

Windstorms, floods, explosions and terrorism have dominated recent agendas at Baden-Baden, the genteel German spa town that hosts the annual gathering of reinsurance industry representatives.

That more bread-and-butter issues, such as ratings downgrades, were main topics of conversation this year reflects the fact that 2003 has--up to a point--been a less turbulent twelve months. Even the devastation wrought by the Californian brush fires produced losses of lesser magnitude than other recent catastrophes.

"There was more optimism evident this year," said Gerald Koenig, origination team chief at GE Frankona Re, Munich. "People feel that the market is ...

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