In an interview with Reinsurance News during RVS 2025 in Monte Carlo, Thomas Braune, CEO of NewRe, and Iris Urban, Chief Underwriting Officer P&C, said the company has demonstrated stability and continuity in a difficult market, benefiting from parent Munich Re’s knowledge pool, leaving them optimistic for the next renewal.
She said, “We’re independent, but of course, we can tap into the knowledge pool of the Munich Re group, which is really giving us a superior position here in that market. So therefore, we are looking into the next year very optimistically.”
Braune stated that the company’s main focus continues to be on serving its existing clients, with no growth targets or changes in its risk strategy.
“My wish is that we continue, as in the past, with our existing clients, they are our main focus. We have grown quite a lot in the last years, so therefore we are open for new opportunities, but we don’t have a top line target. So, it’s more about serving the existing clients as well as in the past,” he said.
Urban stressed that reinsurers have to be mindful right now and consider every line of business individually.
On the natural catastrophe side, NewRe has seen a lot of growth, with Braune describing it as a good market environment.
He said, “The main discussion you hear about capacity is only focussing on the nat cat business. It always revolves around how much capacity is available in the market.
“What we hear is that there is enough capacity in the market. At the same time, there’s no excess capacity in the market. So, demand and supply fits, which is a good sign. Also, the good thing is there are no surprises and no surprises are good in our industry because then the expectations of the insurers, of the brokers, and the reinsurers, they can fit together.”
Urban and Braune also touched on artificial intelligence (AI), emphasising that for NewRe, using AI means better decisions, not efficiency.
“AI is a very talked about topic, especially coming from the underwriting side, where we benefit if you talk about AI or latest data analytics, technologies, methodologies. It’s really helping us with the analysis of the data. And that’s something that happens in the back, face to face, it’s really a people business, you need to talk to people,” said Urban. “What we’re hoping for and what we’re using it for is to support the process, to make it easier to get all the data in to focus on assessing the risks, really assessing on what the client really needs, instead of focussing on processing the data.”
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