This content is copyright to www.artemis.bm and should not appear anywhere else, or an infringement has occurred.
Property and natural catastrophe reinsurance are the areas of the market where Swiss Re sees rising competition, but the firm’s CEO Andreas Berger said last week that he still sees them as healthy, with terms, conditions and attachments stable, explaining that he is “a believer in cat.”
Speaking during an analyst call on Friday afternoon, Swiss Re’s Group Chief Executive Officer said that while the reinsurance company is not steering for top-line growth, where there are attractive opportunities to expand it will continue to do so.
Asked about property reinsurance, where Swiss Re has been growing strongly and reported premium growth of 24% this morning, CEO Berger said, “Property and nat cat are the ones where we see a tougher, competitive environment. But I can say that it is still in a very healthy space.”
Adding that, “The good thing is that the structures, terms and conditions, attachment points, are very stable and that is very helpful.”
Berger went on to say, “We’re still in a high margin territory. Property, in particular, found good increases, territorially, it’s not only the US, mainly also Europe, where we saw some significant increases and cat, we have seen increased demand for cat capacity, and also property with cat in particular and we see that as a trend.”
He further explained that with the first-quarter of 2025 a particularly catastrophe heavy quarter for the industry that will play into the mid-year reinsurance renewals outcome.
“There are different voices in the market. Some say there’s still a very continued competitive environment, others say the losses had to be absorbed you know, so large parts of the nat cat budgets were already consumed.
“This will definitely have an impact on the next renewals upcoming on 1 June and 1 July, and these, in itself, they make up 20% of the renewal business for our book,” he explained.
Later in the call, Swiss Re’s CEO explained that the company is not growing for the sake of adding premiums, instead remaining focused on the price adequacy of the business it underwrites.
Berger said, “We’re not steering for revenues, for top-line, that’s a very important fundamental. We’re steering for bottom line, and we’re steering for resilient portfolios. But at the same time, we analyse also in which markets do we have market leading positions and obviously we would like to protect the market leading position, which means, based on the technical excellence in underwriting, you will also look for opportunities to expand.”
On nat cat risks in particular, Berger further stated, “I am a believer in cat, we are a leading capacity provider in nat cat. We manage volatility and we help insurers who can actually not carry the volatility, and that’s where we want to deploy our capacity. Where it makes sense, and where both parties benefit from it.”
During the call the Swiss Re executives were also asked about whether the firm has an appetite to write aggregate covers, given the market has seen more of these deals transacted in recent weeks.
Swiss Re’s Group Chief Financial Officer Anders Malmström responded, saying, “When it comes to aggregate, that’s an area that we’re extremely cautious and we stay very firm here to maintain the T&C’s.”
A competitive environment. But terms, conditions & attachments stable: Swiss Re CEO was published by: www.Artemis.bm
Our catastrophe bond deal directory
Sign up for our free weekly email newsletter here.