Munich Re eyes big price hikes in wake of AIG-FT

FRANKFURT, Sept 22 (Reuters) - Munich Re (MUVGn.DE) sees opportunities to push through double-digit price increases following the rescue of American International Group (AIG) (AIG.N) by the U.S. government, a Munich Re board member said.

The world's biggest reinsurer is targeting price increases that are "clearly in the double digit percentages" for the risk cover it provides to insurers in 2009, board member Torsten Jeworrek told the Financial Times Deutschland newspaper in an interview conducted on Friday.

Insurers, who pass on some of their risks to reinsurers in exchange for part of the premium, will hammer out contracts in the coming weeks on the price and extent of risk cover for 2009.

"We have a situation in the reinsurance market that is similar to that after Sept. 11, 2001," Jeworrek said in the interview published on Monday.

"The market is significantly different from a week ago," Jeworrek said.

"From now on it's a hard market. The soft market is behind us," he said. Reinsurers refer to periods of high prices and favourable conditions for them as a "hard market."

AIG, which was on the verge of collapse as it struggled in fallout from the subprime mortgage crisis, was bailed out by the federal government with a $85 billion credit facility that will require it to sell assets to repay the debt. (Reporting by Jonathan Gould; editing by Sue Thomas)