Swiss Re Hosts Investors’ Day Conference

Swiss Re hosted its annual Investors’ Day at its Rüschlikon Conference Center near Zurich, yesterday, Nov. 23. The presentation offered additional insights into the Group’s risk management framework and a discussion of its internal risk model.

The presenters informed the company’s investors concerning its risk management framework, which determines the Group’s required capital and capital adequacy, and provided “additional insights on the economics of its Property & Casualty Business Group.”

Swiss Re’s bulletin noted that it “uses an integrated risk management framework to anticipate, quantify and limit its risks and to determine its capital requirements. The internal model, which considers insurance, market and credit risks, goes beyond the simple use of historical data and includes the application of threat scenarios, correlations between risk dependencies and factors impacting the tail of risks.”

It also stressed that the Group’s capital adequacy was 278 percent at first half 2004. “The capital adequacy ratio is defined as the total available capital divided by the capital requirements for Swiss Re’s entire portfolio of risks,” the announcement explained. “Swiss Re’s internal model measures required capital over an one year time horizon as 99 percent value at risk. This ratio of 278 percent means that even after an one in 100 year adverse event, Swiss Re’s financial strength remains very strong.”

Concerning the economics of it P/C business, Swiss Re noted that its published combined ratio for 2003 was 98.4 percent. “However,” it continued, “for a better understanding of the underlying economic profitability of the property and casualty business, additional factors not included in this reported figure should be considered. Such factors include the average duration of the business and claims payment patterns. Taking these factors into account, Swiss Re’s economic combined ratio for 2003 was 91.4 percent.”

Swiss Re also reaffirmed its commitment to fighting the cycle. It noted that the P/C Business Group “is tackling the challenges of the insurance cycle through rigorous underwriting discipline. This is enforced through an operational structure, which separates product pricing from sales. Capacity is steered across the business group to those lines of business, which will generate the highest return, while avoiding the cycle’s downswing. This is achieved by setting strict benchmarks for each reinsurance contract ensuring an average performance, over the cycle, in line with the Group’s return on equity targets.”

All presentation and workshop slides of the conference presentations are available at: www.swissre.com. The main presentations will be broadcast on the site.

Topics Training Development Property Casualty Risk Management Swiss Re