INSURANCE MATTERS
REINSURERS AND CLIMATE RISKS
The European reinsurance sector
A pillar of stability and innovation
Thierry Léger
Chair of the Insurance Europe Reinsurance Advisory Board
CEO of SCOR
The demand for reliable solutions is growing. What’s behind this surge?
Across the globe, risk is becoming more complex, far-reaching and severe. In 2024, the ongoing impacts of climate change, increasing geopolitical tensions and a diverse array of evolving and emerging risks continued to shape the world. Climate change is increasing the financial burden of losses from natural disasters. Demographic shifts are also driving changing insurance needs worldwide, with ageing populations straining systems in some countries, while others see a youthful workforce looking at the future with high expectations. At the same time, technology and data are transforming businesses and societies, creating new challenges and opportunities, and driving increased demand for risk transfer solutions.
Insurers are on the front line of managing these risks – and backing the insurers are reinsurers. When large or catastrophic risk events occur, it is the reinsurers who assume (part of) the losses from primary insurers, ensuring swift recovery and supporting more resilient societies. To do so, reinsurers must take a strategic approach to diversify their exposures to risks from across the world, enabled by a mix of highly specialised expertise, continuous product innovation and a global balance sheet.
The power of (European) reinsurance
Europe’s reinsurance sector is a world leader in providing the capacity, expertise and forward-looking perspective needed to prevent, mitigate and absorb risks – thereby ensuring business resilience and societal protection. It is a strategic industry and partner Europe cannot afford to overlook.
The leading reinsurers in Europe, all members of the Reinsurance Advisory Board (RAB), represent nearly 50% of the world’s gross written premium. This collective contribution to global risk protection is unmatched. But the reinsurers’ role goes far beyond that.
Reinsurers are enablers of economic stability and long-term competitiveness, providing the capital and technical expertise needed to turn risks into investable opportunities. Reinsurers make it possible for insurers to offer cover where it otherwise wouldn’t exist. No private investment is made without risk protection. No complex risk is covered without reinsurance.
As the European Commission progresses through year one of its five-year agenda, the relevance of the reinsurance sector to its goals – from remaining competitive to innovation and resilience – must be recognised.
Smart regulation for a global sector
Reinsurance is an inherently cross-border industry, with global diversification as a fundamental feature. By pooling many diverse risks (in terms of business lines, products and geography), reinsurers benefit from diversification, since not all risks materialise at the same time. For instance, a loss event in one market can be balanced by gains from unaffected reinsurance contracts elsewhere. By managing large, complex risks and spreading them globally, reinsurers prevent over-exposure and stabilise local insurance markets.
As a result, trade policies and regulatory practices that facilitate cross-border transactions of reinsurance do strengthen local insurance markets and local resilience.
The leading reinsurers in the world have called Europe home. To maintain the competitiveness of the European Union, the European Commission has the levers to ensure this success story continues, through 5 pillars:
As carriers of long-tail solutions across Property & Casualty and Life & Health business, the justified downsizing of the risk margin’s volume and volatility as part of the Solvency II review is a must for the reinsurance business.
The direction set out in recent proposals such as the Omnibus package is welcomed - however it must also deliver meaningful relief for the larger companies. More should be done to reflect the business-to-business nature of reinsurance, notably when finalising the Insurance Recovery and Resolution (IRRD) regulation.
Regulation within the EU, trade agreements with the EU and supervisory cooperation across the world should reflect that the reality of our business is cross-border and built on trust between professional risk carriers. The EU-US Covered Agreement is a blueprint for regulatory understanding and equal opportunities across regions that should be promoted and duplicated across the world.
Europe should continue to be at the forefront of risk management modelling capabilities. It should promote in international fora the unmatched understanding of complex risks that state-of-the-art internal models offer.
Europe can’t afford to fall behind its global peers by creating unnecessary friction for a sector it relies on for investment and resilience.
A proven partner for Europe
The Commission’s Competitiveness Strategy sets a clear ambition: a more resilient, innovative and strategically autonomous Europe.
Reinsurance is a strategic enabler for Europe and needs the right regulatory environment to address the biggest challenges of our time effectively. That means regulation that fits the business. It means maintaining open global markets. And it means cutting those operational and reporting burdens that add no value – allowing us to dedicate our efforts and resources to achieving our core common ambitions.
To prepare for the future, Europe must play to its strengths – and reinsurance, a sector built for long-term value, is one of them. European reinsurers are not just risk takers: they are long-term partners in innovation, sustainable growth and resilience.
The Insurance Europe Reinsurance Advisory Board (RAB) is a specialist representative body for the European reinsurance industry. The RAB comprises the seven largest European reinsurers — Gen Re, Hannover Re, Lloyd’s of London, Munich Re, PartnerRe, SCOR and Swiss Re — which together represent more than 50% of total reinsurance premiums income worldwide. It is represented at chairman or CEO level, with Insurance Europe providing the secretariat.