Study on the Relationship between the Reinsurance, Management of Regulatory Ratios and Tax Reduction on Insurance Companies in Brazil

Abstract

The recent entry of new reinsurers, besides the traditional/state/monopolist, changed the domestic insurance market, changing in profound ways how insurance companies work with reinsurance transactions. The relationship between the reinsurance level and solvency ratios, taxes and determinants was a subject analyzed by international and national studies, the latter researched the market during the pre-opening period (until 2007). In this context, this study ana- lyzes, through a pooled linear regression model, if the use of reinsurance by the Brazilian insurance companies, between 2011 and 2013, was influenced by the solvency and taxes, profitability and size of these companies.
According to the international studies, there was no statistical significance for solvency variables. The “size” showed that smaller insurers are risk- averse and thus need higher levels of reinsurance. The proxy taxes had a positive significance, suggesting that national insurers use reinsurance as a tax management tool. The profitability variable was effective to explain the use of reinsurance by national insurance companies. The most profitable insurance companies tend to invest more in managing their risks by making greater use of reinsurance for its less profitable operations. This study found evidence that reinsurance is used by Brazilian insurance companies, not only as a risk management tool, but also for managing taxes and results.