The International Group (IG) reinsurance programme structure for the 2026/27 policy year has now been finalised.

1. Overall structure

The overall structure of the programme for the 2026/27 policy year is as follows:

• Club retention : US$10 million
• Pool retention : US$90 million excess of US$10 million
• General Excess of Loss : US$2.25 billion excess of US$100 million
• Collective Overspill : US$1 billion excess of US$2.35 billion

The IG has extended the cover offered by Clubs to their shipowner members by expanding Layer 3 of the GXL from US$600m excess of US$1.5bn to US$850m excess of US$1.5bn. This in turn means that the IG’s Collective Overspill cover of US$1bn is now excess of US$2.35bn as opposed to US$2.1bn in 2025/26.

For more details, please refer to the attached diagramme.

2. Limits on the cover

Owner’s P&I cover is subject to the following particular limits as set out in the rules (unchanged from 2025/26):

• Oil pollution : US$1 billion
• Passenger and crew combined : US$3 billion
• Passenger (sub-limit) : US$2 billion

3. Excess War P&I cover

The excess War P&I cover will be renewed for 2026/27 for a period of 12 months. This will be included in the total rates charged to shipowners. However, due to the ongoing active war between Russia and Ukraine, the IG’s Excess War reinsurers have maintained their requirement for Territorial Exclusion language (consistent with exclusionary language already applied by reinsurers for Primary War P&I coverage) for vessels trading in these waters. As such the Group continues to purchase aggregated sub-limited cover from the reinsurance markets to cover the Russia/Ukraine/Belarus excluded risks but this has increased from US$100m in 2025/26 to US$125m for 2026/27.

4. The IG reinsurance rates for the 2026/27 policy year

To ensure the fairness of cost allocation between different vessel types, each year the IG’s Reinsurance Committee considers the vessel categories used. Having given due consideration to possible variations, the conclusions are that there should be no change in the number of categories at this time, but that there should be some adjustments to the relative rate changes having regard to each category’s historical claims performance against the GXL.

The 2026/27 rates are set out below:

5. Renewal overview

Following a relatively benign Pool claims environment for the 2022/23 and 2023/24 Policy Years, the 2024/25 and 2025/26 policy years have seen a move back towards a higher level of pool claims activity, more consistent with the 2019-2021 period.

The GXL allows IG Clubs to offer uniquely high levels of free and unlimited coverage for most of the risks they insure. In securing this renewal, the IG is therefore grateful for the ongoing support of its leader, AXA XL, and also to its many other longstanding reinsurance partners.

For more information, please see the IG’s press release.