NewRe CEO outlines growth plans after pandemic ‘perfect storm’

As the industry emerges from an “almost perfect storm” as a result of COVID-19, the chief executive of NewRe has set out two key objectives for the business: growth plans and building an organisation fit for the future.

Thomas Braune took the reins of NewRe in October 2020. The reinsurer, founded 1926, and owned by Munich Re since 1988, operates as an independent brand and an independent business but “embedded” in the Munich Re group.

Braune told Intelligent Insurer’s Re/insurance Lounge that the company is confident of securing growth in its property & casualty book, while it will also look to expand in other business lines including weather-related risks.

“We are seeing increasing demand from utility companies wanting to hedge increasing volatility from the weather,” he said.

Digital forward

NewRe is investing in its own digital capabilities. It has adopted a hybrid working model and flexible culture, which Braune says will help it compete in Zurich’s competitive labour market, and invested heavily in new IT equipment designed to optimise its own internal processes.

He describes the past 12 months as an “intense time” because of COVID-19 but says the company has illustrated its resilience.

“COVID-19 was a nearly perfect storm for the insurance industry,” he said. “It affected life and health as well as P&C business. It was a worldwide pandemic without diversification and investments were also affected.

“But the industry proved to be resilient—we learned lessons from previous crises. This was very much on the top of the heat map of risks for us but we proved that risk management works and I think clients see us as an integral part of risk management now more than they did before.”

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He added that the pandemic acted as an accelerator for digitisation, which worked better than expected. “Last year we held our first fully virtual renewal and that worked for the insurance industry. Now we are in our second virtual Monte Carlo,” he noted.

Braune believes a growing issue for the industry will be the importance of partnerships—he does not believe the re/insurance industry can tackle the biggest risks alone.

“We need new solutions for mega trends including climate change. It is not a question of can we model it, it is whether we can carry the risk. We need to form partnerships with governments. We cannot bear all the risk,” he said.

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