During the 2025 Rendez-Vous de Septembre (RVS) in Monte Carlo, Urs Baertschi, CEO Property & Casualty Reinsurance at Swiss Re, said that there is a reasonable balance between insurance and reinsurance companies around risk sharing for natural catastrophes.
“The insurance companies focus on the attritional losses and the reinsurers focus on the really big events as a shock absorber, and that is sort of the traditional balance in the risk sharing that makes sense in the industry.”
Baertschi acknowledged that this balance “ebbs and flows a little bit”, citing how the balance didn’t work a few years ago, resulting in the industry having to react pretty significantly, and that’s not healthy overall.
He reiterated, “Right now, there’s a reasonable balance in that risk sharing, and we would expect that the industry maintains that discipline.”
Baertschi was asked if he expects the reinsurance market to take on more convective storm frequency risk, where he further highlighted this disciplined approach.
He said, “We’ll see how the market plays out. It’s clearly a competitive environment out there, we would expect that the reinsurance industry remains disciplined around those points. Price will be set by the market ultimately.”
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