Cat losses will boost pricing in commercial insurance: Zurich

The chief executive of Zurich Insurance Group will tell investors in the insurer that he expects the recent series of natural catastrophes to lead to an improving price trend in commercial insurance.

Mario Greco will today (Wednesday November 15) make a series of presentations to update investors and analysts on the progress of the company’s strategy for 2017 to 2019.

“The targets announced last year anticipated a weakening market trend. The recent events are a reminder of rising risk costs, and we expect that the impact of the events will lead to an improving price trend. This will further boost our ability to deliver on the targets for 2017-2019,” said Greco ahead of the event.

He stressed that the company had posted solid results in the first half of this year despite tough market conditions. The group’s business operating profit after tax return on equity was 12.5 percent, and it achieved cumulative cost savings of around $550 million toward the target of $1.5 billion, with the benefits from additional actions that are underway expected to flow through by the end of the year.

“In the face of challenging market conditions we continued to grow our businesses, improve our underlying performance and transform our approach to customer service,” said Greco, group chief executive officer. “This pattern of success gives us confidence that we will deliver on our targets and increase returns to our shareholders.”

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