The capital management strategies of leading London insurers have not changed, according to RBC Capital Markets' (RBC CM) summary of a London Market event held on Monday between senior management from Hiscox, Lancashire, Lloyd's and Catlin, and a group of investors. RBC's Jean-Francois Tremblay observed that strategy "seemed to be geared by the belief that (the) market will turn sooner or later, thus offering the opportunity to deploy capital at even better terms". For this reason, RBC CM felt that "looking out to 2013, it seems to us that risks to the pricing cycle are to the downside due to excess capacity". It noted that even insurers in a tighter capital situation wanted to make sure that they had ample capacity for when the market turned, "by, for instance, incorporating third-party capital into their plans". Other key points from the meeting included the conclusion that US property-catastrophe was the one class that really delivered on price, up 5% to 15%; although there had also been a strong performance in retrocession pricing, back to the levels of 2006. Europe was said to have disappointed, with the European reinsurers driving down prices, the new RMS model too late to be adopted, and, anecdotally, aggressive pricing from the Zurich-based subsidiaries of London players. Munich Re was rumoured to have been more disciplined in pricing strategy, RBC CM said. Asia-Pacific rates rose, "but not as much as hoped". Apparently the participation of Berkshire Hathaway on many programmes meant that the rest of the market was "left to fight for scraps".  RBCCM concluded that the event reinforced its already-held view that reinsurance investors "need to be particularly selective".