An insurance boss has complained that even though rates have hardened, they remain too low.

Richard Brindle highlighted the rising catastrophe risks in an era of increasingly evolving climate-change exposures and said that there are inadequate rates to match them.

Mr Brindle is the chairman and group chief executive officer of Fidelis, the privately owned, Bermuda-based holding company, which, through its subsidiaries, is a global provider of property, bespoke and specialty insurance and reinsurance products.

Fidelis Insurance has renewed its 20 per cent whole account quota share with Berkshire Hathaway for 2022.

Mr Brindle said: “I am pleased to announce that I have agreed with Berkshire Hathaway to renew for a further 12 months our quota-share arrangement with them, enabling Fidelis to continue to supply significant capacity to clients.

“I continue to believe that there is considerable need for lead markets with significant capacity across a range of specialty, bespoke and reinsurance lines.

“Nonetheless further changes to product structures and pricing are required, especially in the catastrophe-exposed property lines to reflect the real impacts of climate change and exposure growth.

“For everyone who is calling a hard market I have one question: where are the hard-market profits?

“We need to price and structure our products to make a profit for our shareholders, and at present the industry is not even covering the cost of capital.

“Fidelis will continue to supply significant capacity to clients but all our business lines must be rated to make a sustainable profit.”